Over 25,000 nurses to receive special payment

It will be between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salaries as of 1 December 2022.

More than 25,000 nurses will receive the 2022 Nurse Special Payment (NSP) Package between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salaries to attract and retain nurses, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a social media post.

In a separate statement, the Ministry of Health said nurses in three public healthcare clusters namely National Healthcare Group, National University System, and SingHealth will be eligible for the special package as retention payment.

This will be extended to 2,600 nurses in publicly-funded community care organisations, it said.

“Both the COVID-19 and (business-as-usual) workloads continue to add a heavy burden on our nurses. We cannot thank our nurses enough for their tremendous work, especially in this long-drawn pandemic,” Ong said.

“So this is an important nurses’ retention payment to attract and retain our nursing talents. We will support them in every way we can,” he added.

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The Ministry said the 2022 NSP would be calculated based on their base salary as of 1 December 2022, with the regular NSP of 0.5 months will be paid out in December 2022.

Meanwhile, the enhanced NSP of between 1.2 and 1.6 months will be split into two equal tranches which will be released in March 2023 and September 2023 to those who remain in continuous service with their employing organisation.

NSP details will be shared with the nursing staff by their respective public health clusters, whilst the Agency for Integrated Care will follow up with the publicly-funded community organisations on the sector's funding details.

“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 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,” the ministry said.

Base salaries of nurses were increased by between 5% and 14% to attract and retain staff, with the first phase implemented in July 2021 and the second phase in July 2022.