Singapore - Singapore to need 11,000 elder care workers by 2020

SINGAPORE, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Singapore now has about 4,000 workers in the elder care sector, but it will need another 11,000 workers by 2020, Minister of State for Health Amy Khor has said.

The Straits Times said in a report on Monday that this means recruiting the workers such as doctors, nurses, therapists and healthcare attendants in the next eight years, describing it as an "unenviable task."

The 5.08 million population of Singapore is aging rapidly and the need for caregivers will shoot up, it said. But the problem is that the jobs in the sector is seen as being of low status and usually are not well paid.

Khor chairs two of the five subcommittees set up last year under the Ministerial Committee on Ageing. Besides making sure that housing estates and public facilities are elderly friendly, she is also tasked with managing the manpower needs for the elder care sector.

The committee has proposed that Singapore will go in the direction of keeping the elderly at home and in the community for as long as possible instead of institutionalizing them in nursing or old folk's homes.

Many more workers will be needed to provide services to the elderly, be it running day-care centers or providing food for those who are too frail to do their own cooking. But it is difficult to attract enough people to work in a sector where salaries are about 20 percent to 30 percent below those of healthcare institutions.

Adjusting salaries to match the market rate is the easiest problem to solve, she said. But with the healthcare sector needs more manpower, too. Khor is hoping to encourage housewives and retirees to take on part-time work.

Those with nursing skills will be in great demand, but even the unskilled can help with cleaning and cooking for the elderly, she said.

"I hope we can train up enough people in a short period," she said. "It's a sunrise sector, not sunset -- there are golden opportunities in the golden years."

Editor: Luo Yuan

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