Close to 4,000 new nurses to be added to Singapore workforce by end of 2023: MOH

Close to 4,000 new nurses will be progressively brought on board by the end of 2023 as part of the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) efforts to replace those “lost” to other countries and to expand the Singapore workforce, Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said on Monday (Nov 21).

Ong said this was a “significant” number, making up about 10 percent of the current nursing workforce. The amount is also 700 more than the number of nurses onboarded last year.

The minister was speaking at the Tan Chin Tuan Nursing Award ceremony for enrolled nurses, held at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine on Monday. ​

Earlier this year, Parliament heard that the attrition rate among local and foreign nurses in the public sector increased last year, compared to 2020.

Among locals, the attrition was 7.4 percent in 2021, up from 5.4 percent the previous year. For foreign nurses, attrition more than doubled year on year to 14.8 percent in 2021, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam told Parliament on Aug 2.

In July, in a bid to attract and retain nursing talent, MOH announced that more than 25,000 nurses will receive a special payment of between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salary.

Agencies