More than 25,000 nurses serving in the public healthcare clusters will receive a special payment package of between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salary, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Sunday (July 31).

Nurses serving in the public healthcare clusters — National Healthcare Group, National University Health System and SingHealth — will be eligible for the 2022 Nurse Special Payment (NSP) Package as their retention payment.

The package will also be extended to another 2,600 nurses working in publicly funded community care organisations.

It will be calculated based on a nurse's base salary as at Dec 1 and comprise the regular NSP of 0.5 months, which will be paid out in December, and the enhanced NSP of between 1.2 and 1.6 months.

The enhanced NSP will be split equally into two tranches to be paid out in March 2023 and September 2023 to nurses who remain in continuous service with their employing organisation.

According to MOH, the public healthcare clusters will share details of the NSP with nursing staff in the public healthcare institutions while the Agency for Integrated Care will follow up with the publicly funded community care organisations.

"As we celebrate Nurses’ Day on Aug 1, it is timely to show our deep appreciation to our nurses who continue to work tirelessly to support the entire healthcare system," said MOH.

MOH added that the demand for healthcare services and manpower will continue to increase as the population ages.

"MOH is committed to building up a local core of nursing workforce to meet our future needs by improving the attractiveness of the nursing profession, and growing the local nursing training pipelines for both fresh graduates and mid-career entrants."

The ministry had enhanced the base salaries of nurses in the public healthcare sector by between 5 per cent and 14 per cent.

The first phase took place in July 2021 while the second phase took place in July this year.

This is "to ensure that we continue to attract and retain staff and maintain market competitiveness", said MOH.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by CHARLENE GOH

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