Resignation rates among healthcare workers in Singapore are going up amidst the rising Covid-19 cases, said Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary recently. Around 1,500 healthcare workers have turned in their resignation letters in the first half of this year, compared with 2,000 a year pre-pandemic.

According to Dr Janil, foreign healthcare workers have also resigned in bigger numbers, mostly due to the fact they are unable to travel to see their families back home. Close to 500 foreign doctors and nurses resigned in the first half of this year, compared with around 500 last year and about 600 in 2019, the New Paper reports.

“These resignations were mostly tendered for personal reasons, for migration, or moving back to their home countries,” he said in a ministerial statement in Parliament.

Dr Janil noted that for healthcare workers, it has been over 20 months of continuous daily battles against the pandemic, with a large proportion of them unable to take leave since last year. Over 90 percent of them will not be able to clear their accumulated leave for this year, he noted.

For the month of September, nurses worked for an average of 160 to 175 hours a month. With healthcare workers being continuously overstretched, it is “not surprising” to find resignation rates going up this year.

Corresponding to this growing trend, the Ministry of Health is actively redeploying its manpower to serve as healthcare or patient care assistants at its institutions.

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