MOH’s mission is:

• to promote good health and reduce illness;
• ensure that Singaporeans have access to good and affordable healthcare that is appropriate to needs; and
• to pursue medical excellence.

To sustain a cost-effective and quality healthcare system in the long-term, MOH strives to build a nation of healthy Singaporeans, as well as to continually invest in the pursuit of medical excellence. A total of $2,280 million is allocated to MOH in FY2007 to achieve this mission.

Promoting Good Health and Reducing Illness

A primary priority of the healthcare system is to minimise the need for costly medical interventions by enhancing health promotion and education as well as disease prevention capabilities. Thus, promoting good health and a healthy lifestyle will remains a key pillar of MOH’s mission.

Health promotion and education

For FY2007, $86 million is set aside for health education and promotion initiatives under the Health Promotion Board (HPB). Key programmes include:

• National Healthy Lifestyle Programme
• National Smoking Control Programme
• Workplace Health Promotion Programme
• Nutrition Programme
• Mental Health Promotion Programme
• National Myopia Prevention Programme
• School Health Programme
• National Cancer Screening Programme for Women.

HPB will also be adopting a more targeted and individualised approach for at-risk groups, such as Youth Health Promotion for adolescents.

Operational Readiness

$64 million is set aside to maintain our operational readiness capability against emergency health situations and infectious diseases. Key thrusts include:

• Maintaining our capability to deal with emergency health situations such as influenza pandemic, bioterrorism and mass casualty events; and
• Continuing our cooperation and collaboration with international and regional bodies in the fight against emerging infectious diseases.

Delivering Good and Affordable Healthcare

MOH is committed to ensuring that all Singaporeans have access to good and affordable healthcare that is appropriate to needs. In line with this, MOH provides:

Government subsidies for good, basic healthcare

A total of $1,500 million is set aside as subsidies for Singaporeans requiring:

• Primary care provided at 18 polyclinics under the Singapore Health Services and National Healthcare Group clusters.
• Secondary and Tertiary care (e.g. Specialist Outpatient Clinics, day surgeries and inpatient care) provided at 13 public hospitals and healthcare institutions under the Singapore Health Services and National Healthcare Group clusters.
• Intermediate and Long-term care provided at 67 voluntary welfare organisations, including nursing homes, community hospitals, day care centres for the elderly and hospices.

National healthcare financing frameworks

The 3M financing framework is intended to help individuals pay for their share of medical expenses. No Singaporean will be denied good basic healthcare because of an inability to pay.

• Medisave and MediShield encourage Singaporeans to take responsibility for their own healthcare needs through savings and co-payments.
• Medifund helps poor and indigent patients who cannot pay for medical expenses despite government subsidies, Medisave and MediShield through interest income generated from an endowment fund.
• From Oct 2006, Singaporeans can use their Medisave for treatments for diabetes at accredited General Practitioner (GPs) clinics and polyclinics. In 2007, Medisave will be further extended to cover three more major diseases. This will enhance Singaporeans’ access to care.
• ElderShield is an affordable severe disability insurance scheme to provide insurance coverage for elderly Singaporeans who require long-term care. ElderShield will provide them with basic financial protection and help them defray out-of-pocket expenses in the event of severe disabilities.
• The Interim Disability Assistance Programme, or IDAPE, provides the desired medical coverage for those who are not covered by Eldershield. A total of $21 million is set aside to help the elderly pay for their ElderShield premiums and as subsidy payouts for Singaporeans under IDAPE.

Pursuing Medical Excellence

The pursuit of medical excellence is an integral part of ensuring that our national healthcare system keeps pace with global medical advancements. The key focus areas include:

Investing in knowledge-driven healthcare

MOH has partnered with A*STAR, MOE, the National Research Foundation and the National Medical Research Council to enhance medical excellence through research. Key investments include:

• $100 million for clinical and translational research to help develop new standards in medical excellence and raise the quality of medical care for Singaporeans.
• Some $15 million for the Health Services Development Programme to develop new clinical services and augment existing funding for new medical capability development in our public healthcare system.
  
  

Investing in healthcare manpower

MOH continually invests in training and education of healthcare professionals to safeguard the quality of our healthcare services. Some $179 million will be invested to achieve the following key outcomes:

• Ensure that our medical undergraduates and specialists, para-medical and allied health professionals continue to receive high quality training.
• Enhance the nursing, allied health and healthcare assistant (HCA) professions, develop educational and career pipelines for nurses and allied health professionals, and nurture our young doctors.
  
  

Investing in Infrastructure

MOH will continue to invest in healthcare infrastructure.

• Upcoming projects include the new Alexandra Hospital@Yishun costing $457 million.
• MOH will also redevelop existing facilities such as the Pathology Building, Communicable Disease Centre and the National University Hospital.