Six new medical centres to be opened under new migrant workers healthcare system

A new system to provide primary healthcare for migrant workers will be introduced from November in hopes to help reduce the possibilities of future disease outbreaks. 

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) published tender documents on Jun 28 that included details about the new system to deliver healthcare in six geographical sectors. 

Each sector can house at least 40,000 migrant workers and consists of a medical centre, onsite medical centre in large dormitories, two mobile clinical teams, 24-hour telemedicine consultations and ambulance special transport services.

Each medical centre, excluding onsite centres in dormitories, will be equipped with X-ray capabilities to provide better healthcare. Telemedicine consultations will cater to non-urgent needs such as mental health counselling or medication refills.  

To ensure that there are no cultural and language barriers, these medical centres will need to have doctors from worker’s home countries and multilingual translation capabilities.

Additionally, healthcare provided to the migrant workers will be done in a way so that they will not have to spend too much on medical expenses. 

Aside from being a centre for migrant workers, the centres will also be used for public health surveillance, and be equipped with testing and isolation facilities to prevent the spread of diseases. 

There are currently 13 of these centres open ever since dormitories were cleared of COVID-19 last year.