Special payments announced for more than 25,000 nurses in Singapore's public healthcare sector

The bonus will comprise between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salary. It will also be extended to an additional 2,600 nurses working in publicly-funded community care organisations.

More than 25,000 nurses in Singapore's public healthcare clusters will receive the 2022 Nurse Special Payment (NSP) Package, of between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salary, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Sunday (31 July 2022).

These nurses – who work in the National Healthcare Group, National University Health System, and SingHealth – will be eligible for the package as their retention payment. The package will also be extended to an additional 2,600 nurses working in publicly-funded community care organisations, the Ministry added.

This NSP comes in conjunction with Nurses' Day, celebrated today (Monday,1  August 2022), which the Ministry notes is "timely to show our deep appreciation to our nurses who continue to work tirelessly to support the entire healthcare system."

The 2022 NSP Package will be calculated based on the base salary of these nurses as at 1 December 2022, comprising:

• the regular NSP of 0.5 months, which will be paid out in December 2022; and
• the enhanced NSP of between 1.2 and 1.6 months, which 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, i.e. public healthcare institutions and publicly-funded community care organisations.

MOH reiterated: "As our population ages, the demand for healthcare services and manpower will continue to increase. The Ministry of Health is committed to building up a local core of the 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.

"To ensure that we continue to attract and retain staff and maintain market competitiveness, the base salaries of nurses in the public healthcare sector were enhanced by between 5% and 14%. The first phase of this increase took place in July 2021, and the second phase took place in July 2022."

The public healthcare clusters will share the details of the NSP with their nursing staff in the public healthcare institutions, while the Agency for Integrated Care will follow up with the publicly-funded community care organisations on the funding details for their sector.

Following this, Farrer Park Hospital has awarded this retention bonus, in line with MOH's recommendations. 

Image / Health Minister Ong Ye Kung's Facebook

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