Lily Neo
Singapore
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I ask Minister for Health on MOH's capacity in coping with serious cases of COVID-19 in terms of adequacy in respirators and in our ICU beds. Am I correct to say that already half of NCID's ICUs are taken up? What will happen when it reaches its full capacity?”
“But even so, with the right measures of social and medical assistance in place to assist them with their daily living, they can still age gracefully in the comfort of their own homes.”
“Thank you, Mr Chairman. Yes, I will keep it short. Minister earlier said that MSF will proactively reach out to families in HDB rental homes to assist them, to possibly buy their own HDB flats. Many of these families lamented that they cannot afford it. How does the Minister plan to do it?”
“Thank you, Mr Chairman. May I ask the Minister whether there is a possibility of more widespread community spread of COVID-19? And will MOH be able to cope with this? And whether does our Government have more specific measures in place to cope with this scenario?”
“Thank you, Mr Chairman. Earlier in my speech, I asked whether there are assessments by HDB for applicants of Joint Singles Scheme (JSS) to ensure that they are free from mental illnesses and medical conditions before compelling them to stay together.”
“Many of them have lived in rental housing for more than six years and some more than 10 years. Thus, there are signs of entrenchment. What are the schemes in place and the success rate of such schemes, to assist them in looking for better options in their housing needs and to help them get out of their predicaments?”
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“Geriatrics is not a popular specialty among our younger doctors and we do not get enough geriatrics specialists. All these factors will cost us dearly in the future. We need to discourage and reverse these trends. Mr Speaker, Sir, this Government and our seniors have done so much to attain this remarkable state of success for Singapore. This is the time for us to further their achievement. We should now go on and make Singapore a great place to live in. We should pay even more attention to the mundane things of life such as the people's immediate needs, their aspirations for the future and their overall expectations in living standards. I would like to mention that this Government must continue to be sensitive and is seen to be sensitive towards Singaporeans' desire for fair and just handling of issues. Ways for improving harmonious and gracious living and ways for decreasing stressful and excessive paper-chase lifestyles should be enhanced. Let us make sure Singapore is their best home. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Encik Mohamad Maidin B P M (Marine Parade)( In Malay): First of all, I rise to support the motion moved by the Member for Bukit Timah in connection with the President's Address. Mr Speaker, first of all, I would like to raise two issues concerning Mr Chiam See Tong's speech at the beginning. I would like to give my views to be recorded in Parliament. Firstly, about upgrading programme. It is known that upgrading that is done by the Ministry of National Development is a big project affecting all the housing estates in Singapore. The question is which estate will be the first in line for upgrading and which estate will be upgraded later. But upgrading is not something that is pushed to Singaporeans.”
“With the working to elderly ratio of 10:1 now, increasing to 3:1 by the year 2030 and, with those aged 75 years and above increasing in numbers from about 55,000 now to about a quarter million over the same period, it is essential for us to get the secondary-level care facilities in place lest we waste our able-bodied citizens from the workforce. For those who need complete care with total dependency, geriatric homes are needed. We are, fortunately, already on the way in this respect, albeit mainly through voluntary organisations. Tertiary-level care The tertiary-level care is for the aged who are sick. They account for 18% of all hospital admissions and 20% of all outpatient attendances. Those who are 70 years or more in age account for a large proportion of these figures. The projected demands on our health-care services will be overwhelming unless some significant change takes place. This is why I am stressing repeatedly on the importance of primary-level care as an effective way to reduce the number of our aged sick. Successfully managed secondary-level care can reduce the use of the expensive and much-needed acute beds in our major hospitals. At the moment, we have many of the acute beds in these hospitals being taken up by patients who cannot be discharged just because there are no alternative venues to relocate them. One or two geriatric hospitals each with a multi-disciplinary team will have to be considered for a more holistic approach towards better care. At the moment, both the geriatric units in Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Alexandra Hospital are not able to operate optimally for various reasons. The other restructured hospitals prefer not to operate geriatric departments which can seldom be profitable to run.”
“Of course, the fees payable will be made affordable. Secondary-level care The "secondary-level" care pertains to the physically dependent or semi-dependent elderly. They are not sick but, nonetheless, they need constant assistance in order to carry out some of the basic activities of day-to-day living. The type of assistance this group requires will vary from person to person depending on the degree of their incapacity. Without doubt, the ideal situation will be to have these elderly staying for as long as possible in their own homes instead of institutions. In this instance, home-care services would be needed for support and care to enable the frail elderly to live with their families. However, it is not possible for us to avoid having to set up centres for this group of elderly persons. Such secondary-level care centres should be set up at the constituency level and ideally as a follow-on to CARE. These centres will be costly and staff-intensive. For the present moment, however, I would not even suggest starting such centres island-wide, even if we have the means to set them up, because we simply do not have enough relevant personnel to run them. We are, indeed, very short of trained nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapists, trained social workers and so on. For that matter, we are also deficient in home-visiting doctors. We need a school to train people in geriatric care. I feel a sense of urgency here as, unless we have the support services including home-visiting doctors, there will be a serious strain on our presently limited numbers of care-givers.”
“Considering that in 20 years' time, the average expectancy of life will be more than 80 years, it is vital that we succeed in this concept of preventive management. If we are successful at this, the burden from problems of the elderly will be much reduced. At the moment, scattered around the country, there are eight activity centres for the elderly. However, they do not exactly fit the ideals I have in mind. Most of these are more like "free-food providing" centres as distinct from my concept of "total care" centres. We are having a centre with this "total care" concept set up in my constituency. We call it CARE (Centre of Activity for Retired and Elderly) and it should be operational by the end of this month. The centre is well-located, as it should be, for convenient access by the participants. We will attend to their physical needs by providing them with adequate wholesome daily meals, regular health-screening tests, frequent health talks and so on. We will help them pursue healthy lifestyle habits such as exercising every day, curbing smoking and so on. We will promote a more gracious and caring environment among themselves by getting them to sing, to dance, to socialise and to eventually feel committed to each other. This latter feature is to be developed into a "buddy system" whereby we help them not only to help themselves but also to help each other. The "buddies" will keep an eye on each other and they can report on problems and seek help on behalf of and for each other. The old are also prone to poor mental health. I believe we can help reduce debilitating mental-states arising from loneliness and abandonment. Now, we are not going to do all this as a form of free welfare. Membership will be dignified by having the members pay for their participation at CARE.”
“There is a great deal of scope for further improvements to our women's lot in the times ahead. Greying of Singapore and coping with the aged My main concern relates to the way we anticipate and plan on the needs of the aged in Singapore in the years to come. We will have about 27% of Singapore's population above 60 years of age by the year 2030. This amounts to about 800,000 people. We are all aware that coping with the needs of the aged will be a colossal task, fraught with problems. Indeed, Sir, unless careful preparations are made in advance, problems in terms of health-care requirements, social responsibilities and economic loss may disadvantage the country severely. It is thus very important that we prevent this potential disaster of the future. I believe strongly that this issue should be dealt with by embarking on three different levels of care: primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Primary-level care No amount of money or benevolence that we put into the care of the elderly will be satisfactory if they are mostly sick, fragile and incapacitated. The most effective way to go, in coping with and caring for the aged, is thus through promoting preventive care and encouraging healthy lifestyles. This primary level care should be foremost in our planning policy. It should be carried out as a concerted effort nation-wide, preferably at the precinct level. And each and every constituency should treat this, even as of now, as a matter of urgency. Let me elaborate on this "primary-level care" which is aimed at all our physically-independent elderly who are able to participate daily at various centres. It is known that disability problems of any population can be reduced by up to 60% simply through maintaining healthy lifestyles.”
“Yes, one that is caring, careful, constructive and conscientious. Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to add to what the President has said on two of the issues close to my list of concerns. My foremost concern is about the best ways for us to cope with the aged in a greying Singapore and my next concern, which I can only briefly touch on for today, is on issues related to women. Women's issues As a brief introduction on women's issues, Sir, I would like to urge and persuade this Parliament not to alienate women's needs as an issue but to see it as an important societal issue. I say this because about 40% of our workforce is composed of female workers and their contribution to the country and the success of the country is indeed substantial both for today and also for tomorrow. Due to equal opportunities in education as well as in career seeking, a lot of our women today are holding important and surprisingly high-ranking positions. Today, women are not seen as housewives alone, but are expected to contribute to the two-income families of modern Singapore. Holding a full-time job, managing the home and bringing up the children all at the same time is definitely a trying experience. Therefore, if we can help women cope better with their difficult roles, we will benefit not only the women but also the children, the nuclear units of homes, the economy of the country and, in the long run, the nation as a whole. So, Mr Speaker, Sir, please help me along and support me in finding better solutions and ways to help our women-folk attain an easier and better future. Perhaps we can look at making child-care centres more precinct-orientated; having more before-and-after-school-care centres; reviewing enhancement of maternity benefits and even allowing introduction of a Women's Bureau.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me the privilege to participate in this debate. The President, in his Address to Parliament, has given us an exciting vision for this country going into the 21st century. This is good for Singapore and I therefore would like to support the motion of thanks to the President for his Address. Before I go further, I would like to mention to my colleagues in this House that it is good that there are now four of us women Members in this Parliament. Whilst some people may be expecting us to come across in this House as liberators of women or champions for women's rights, I, however, would like to see ourselves functioning more as moderators on things that are relevant to the welfare of women-folk. So, Mr Speaker, Sir, let my colleagues in this House see us as their sisters, seeking only for what is just and fair for all; serving only for what the people want and striving only for what is best for Singapore. The President has brought up many points that will affect and very likely improve the lives of Singaporeans. I believe this Government will fulfill his aspirations in the way only an efficient and earnest Government can. This Government did rightfully earn my trust and admiration previously. And now, as a Member of Parliament, I want to contribute towards the many great programmes already lined up for the future. I shall aim to help this Government fine-tune and carry out these programmes efficiently and without any of those unfortunate and false authoritarian stigmata. Let it not be said that this Government is bo kwan or tidak apa, and everything is dished out in ai lai mai sua or suka suka attitude. I would like to help make the people see this Government for what she really is.”