Is Singapore's for a bigger, older healthcare primed population?

Singaporeans are living longer, but there are challenges such as a lack of healthcare workers to take care of seniors.

- Kelvin Tan

Singapore was named the sixth Blue Zone in the world in the Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. This means it is a city with one of the highest life expectancies across the globe.

The other five zones are in places like Okinawa, Japan, where people live long lives due to a plant-based diet and a culture embodying a relaxed, holistic approach to living. Highachieving Singapore is not like that, but won its place in the longevity list due to policies that encourage and enable healthier behaviours that lead to longer lives.

By 2026, more than 20 per cent of the population will be aged 65 and above. According to SingStat, the life expectancy of Singapore citizens and permanent residents at birth is 83.

The challenge now is to stay in the "zone" amid shortages worldwide in healthcare staff to take care of the aged. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2035, there will be a global deficit of 12.9 million skilled healthcare professionals.

Singapore, in particular, has a limited pool of healthcare workers. During a Parliament session in October 2022, Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said an estimated 24,000 people are needed to grow the current 58,000 healthcare personnel to 82,000 by 2030.

A big part of Singapore's healthcare, especially senior care, depends on foreign workers.

Seventy per cent of direct workers in the long-term care sector are foreigners, according to a 2018 poll by the Lien Foundation.

These include nurses, therapists, nursing aides and healthcare assistants. In a 2022 survey by SingHealth Polyclinics, nearly half of foreign domestic workers hired as caregivers to the elderly with chronic diseases lacked the confidence to support the needs of those they cared for.