Desperate to hire nurses, hospitals and clinics in Singapore offer “finder’s fee”

As the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the healthcare system in Singapore, the demand for nurses grows even as many have quit their jobs due to higher levels of stress and long hours duty to deal with the patients.

For the first time in more than two decades, the number of nurses working in Singapore decreased in 2020 and the situation is significantly worsening this year.

Following the shortage, hospitals and clinics are in such severe need of healthcare workers that at least one private hospital group is giving a “finder’s fee” of up to S$12,000 to those who can recruit an experienced nurse.

According to reports, even a new graduate nurse who joins the hospital can bring in at least S$3,600 for whoever is being introduced to the group. Earlier this month, Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary to Parliament, “About 1,500 healthcare personnel resigned in the first half of 2021.”

There were 42,096 nurses at the end of last year, with a third of them being foreigners but most of them quit soon because they were not unable to visit their family in their home countries.

“In the first half of 2021, close to 500 foreign doctors and nurses resigned, compared to roughly 500 in the entire year of 2020.”

A public-sector nurse recently wrote in her blog piece Desperate and Distraught that the situation is only getting worse by the day.

“When there are more patients than resources, the staff is stretched paper thin,”

SOURCE: The Straits Times