Hospitals.SG

A new training and certification centre for rank-and-file healthcare workers has been established. The centre, located at Jalan Bukit Merah, was officially opened by Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong on 16 January 2009. It will be run by Health Management International Ltd (HMI), a private healthcare and education/training provider.

With support from the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), trainees will get grants of up to 90% for their course fees under the agency's Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR).

The Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is collaborating with the University of Manchester to offer a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Optometry degree programme under the Ministry of Education's Foreign Specialised Institution (FSI) framework.

The full-time degree course will be taught at the polytechnic's campus located in Singapore by SP lecturers and University of Manchester staff. The programme is customised for SP's optometry diploma graduates, according them a one-year advanced standing and thus completion of the degree in as little as two years.

The Singapore government will, from 1 Oct 2007, recognize an additional 19 overseas medical schools. Singaporeans and foreigners who graduate from these medical schools are eligible to register to practice medicine in Singapore.

The 19 new additions, which will bring the total number of recognized foreign institutions to 159^#1, are listed below.

• China
  • Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), Tsinghua University
  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine

From 1st April 2007, Singapore's Ministry of Health and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) will recognize twenty additional foreign medical schools. This brings the total number of medical school degrees recognized under the Medical Registration Act to 140.

List of the additional 20 foreign medical schools to be recognised

Canada

• Faculte de Medecine, Universite Laval
• Faculte de Medecine, Universite de Sherbrooke
• Dalhousie University, Faculty of Medicine
• University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine

The Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) will be implementing a revised fee structure for public and government schools, polytechnics and universities. Non-Singapore citizens admitted from academic year 2008 will pay higher fees.

The changes for the tertiary institutes (polytechnics and universities) are :

12 Oct 2006

In advisories issued on 7 and 10 October, the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) reported an increase in the number of acute diarrhoea cases seen by polyclinics over the past month. With the recent spate of diarrhoeal outbreaks in four schools (Ang Mo Kio Secondary, Stamford Primary School, Maris Stella and ACS(Independent)), the Ministry of Health has advised the public to be vigilant about diarrhoeal illnesses.

1 Sep 2006

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan gave a speech at a dinner at the College of Medicine Building to mark the groundbreaking for the new Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.

Below are excerpts of his speech "A Worthy Piece To Our Healthcare Jigsaw".

A press release by the Ministry of Health last week announced a list of twenty more foreign medical schools to be recognized by the Singapore Government and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).