A minister apologises in Sinagapore, is hell freezing over?

From Today online

Khaw apologises
by Hoe Yeen Nie and Claire Huang 05:55 AM Dec 22, 2009
SINGAPORE - Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has apologised for the over-crowding situation at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).

In his blog yesterday, he said the hospital's Accident and Emergency department is always packed. Several times a week, TTSH even has to divert civil defence ambulances to other hospitals. "It is no fun waiting for a bed, in a crowded room or in a corridor; I am truly sorry," wrote the minister.

The crush at TTSH has, in turn, spread the over-crowding situation to hospitals like Changi General Hospital and Singapore General Hospital.

Many patients are from Woodlands and Yishun in the north, and Mr Khaw hopes the new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital will ease the load when it opens.

"We are all looking forward to this, especially the colleagues in TTSH and other hospitals. They have been wonderful in putting up with the extra workload, without complaints. I thank the patients too for their patience and understanding," he said.

On hindsight, the Ministry of Health (MOH) made a mistake by not building the new hospital two years earlier.

"I am determined not to repeat this mistake in the west," said the minister. Hence, planning for the Jurong General Hospital was "activated" last year, with the management team "working enthusiastically to build a hassle-free healthcare system ... ".

Major changes are also coming up, especially in the allied health professions, with legislation having to keep up with these. After dental hygienists and advanced practice nurses, optometrists and opticians, Mr Khaw is "now getting ready" to go to Parliament again to register physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other allied health professionals.

The MOH has also taken steps to beef up manpower as well as widen staff skill sets.

So far, more than 1,200 people are enrolled in nursing courses in polytechnics while the Bachelor of Nursing course at the National University of Singapore is expected to see some 200 students.

"The nursing profession has regained its popularity," said Mr Khaw.

To be fair, I think Khaw Boon Wan is a minister that does more than he speaks, and maybe one of the few that honestly comes close to deserving a hugely inflated paycheck. In him, I see at least some humility as a person and his willingness to admit to his mistake is refreshing to say the least.

WKS, maybe you can learn something from your fellow colleague.

Musings

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry when I see this article from Today

Finance sector 'expected to increase hiring' next year
05:55 AM Dec 17, 2009

SINGAPORE - Industry leaders say the finance sector is expected to increasing hiring next year.

Speaking at an industry forum yesterday, they said with the economy recovering, more companies are expected to list or issue bonds. This will lead to more banking services and increase demand for talent especially in capital markets.

The Financial Training Institute at Singapore Management University (SMU) said there have already been more enquiries from industry for training in areas such as capital markets.

SMU's Dean of the office of executive and professional education Annie Koh said: "We are definitely going to see demand for banking services, transactions, and consumer banking services, and wealth management services. You need to have the back-end and middle-market trained to prepare for that front-end movement."

Overall, industry growth in the region will also be driven by rising affluence in Asia.

To develop and retain talent, forum participants said banks are increasingly looking at moving people between departments to grow their skills.

These include transfers between various operations within the company such as back, front and middle office operations.

DBS Bank, Chief Executive Officer, Piyush Gupta said: "I find that companies where people are given the opportunity to have lateral mobility, create a lot of talent, and create people who are extremely well-rounded."

He also said: "In my previous company, you could move wherever you wanted to as long as you put your hand up and say 'I want to move', people encourage you to move. And frankly, in my current company, that is something that I hope to be able to institute."

The finance sector contributes 13 per cent of Singapore's GDP and hires 5 per cent of the work force. Ryan Huang

Mr Gupta was previously from Citibank if my memory serves me right. Maybe they do practice such a culture, which is really great IMO. No matter how great you are in your current job, there will come a time when you feel that you have achieved all that you can, and yearn to move on to a new challenge, to something that can simulate your mind further. Or maybe that's just me.

I enjoyed what I was doing back in the bank, but after 3 years, it just doesn't seem that challenging anymore. Everything is so repetitive, I literally took only half the time to do what most others took, and ended up doing twice the same work than most others. Not a very smart move as it made my boss totally unwilling to release me when I asked for a internal transfer. I was very comfortable with the bank, its structure etc and was hoping that I can remain there, but doing some other role. I was literally waving both hands and feet shouting "I want to move!" but nothing ever happened. Plus, given that my boss is unwilling to release me, and HR is unwilling to do the dirty work in re-allocating me, I finally left. I don't know... but it really left a bad taste in my mouth, being that I really see myself as providing value to the organisation, yet....

I'm not alone in this situation so it seems. I think its a pretty common preference among local banks to 'outsource' rather than 'insource' to fill vacancies. Which to me, doesn't really make sense and simply makes for a big round of musical chairs. Most of my seniors, including my manager at that time, had been through all 3 of the local banks and some more. My mentor had been with the same bank for 9 years and counting, yet he is always overlooked for promotion as he is also deemed 'irreplacable' to the manager, and someone from another bank will be headhunted come in to fill up the vacancy despite not have the experience and capability of my mentor.  Does loyalty still count for anything these days?