Ministry of Health (Singapore)

Statutory boards

• Health Promotion Board
• Health Sciences Authority
• Singapore Dental Council
• Singapore Medical Council
• Singapore Nursing Board
• Singapore Pharmacy Council
• Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board

Ministers

The Ministry is headed by the Minister for Health, who is appointed as part of the Cabinet of Singapore.

Incidents

SingHealth data breach (2018)

Main article: 2018 SingHealth data breach

Between June and July 2018, personal data of 1.5 million patients was exfiltrated as a result of a cyberattack on SingHealth, which is the largest group of healthcare institutions in Singapore and is wholly owned by MOH.

HIV data leak (2019)

On 28 January 2019, sensitive information including names, identification numbers, phone numbers, addresses and HIV test results of 12,400 HIV-positive people were leaked online due to mishandling of the information by then-staff member, Ler Teck Siang. Ler, who was the head of National Public Health Unit at MOH at the time, had access to the information and had not complied with the Ministry of Health's security guidelines. Ler downloaded the information on to a personal thumb drive, which his then-boyfriend Mikhy K Farrera Brochez had leaked online subsequently. Minister of Health, Gan Kim Yong, explained that data leak had not been announced earlier, so as to safeguard the patients' well-being.

Community Health Assist Scheme computer system error (2019)

On 16 February 2019, MOH released a public statement admitting that there had been an error in computer systems managed by NCS that were used in relation to the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS). The error resulted in a miscalculation of the amount of health care subsidies applicants were eligible to receive through means-testing, such that approximately 1,300 people received lower subsidies and 6,400 people received higher subsidies.

The first discrepancy in a result of a CHAS card holder was detected on 24 September 2018 by MOH. NCS was informed immediately. NCS had initially attributed the issue to intermittent network connection problems. Between 9 October 2018 and 2 November 2018, another 5 more cases involving discrepancies were detected, prompting the launch of a more in-depth investigation. In November 2018, NCS traced the cause of the discrepancies to a software version issue used on a server used by the system. The identified issue occurred during a migration of the system to another government data center in September 2018. The software version issue was resolved as part of other changes made to address an unrelated performance issue on 10 October 2018. However, incorrect results that had been generated between 18 September 2018 and 10 October 2018 remained in the system.

Remedial actions were then carried out by MOH and NCS to assess impact on the affected applicants. MOH announced that it would work with grant scheme administrators and healthcare institutions to follow up with notifications and reimbursement to the affected applicants. According to media reports, MOH intended to recover costs and expenses arising from this incident from NCS as MOH was entitled to pursuant to the contract between the parties.

Notes

References

References

1. "MINISTRY OF HEALTH".
2. (28 September 2015). "Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announces Singapore's new Cabinet". Channel NewsAsia.
3. Mahmud, Aqil Haziq. (2020-07-25). "PM Lee announces new Cabinet; 6 office holders promoted, 3 retirements".
4. Tham, Irene. (2018-07-20). "Personal info of 1.5m SingHealth patients, including PM Lee, stolen in Singapore's worst cyber attack". The Straits Times.
5. "'I am sorry': Gan Kim Yong says health ministry providing support to HIV sufferers affected by data leak".
6. (2019-03-09). "HIV data leak: Mikhy Farrera-Brochez slapped with 3 charges by US grand jury".
7. "Gan Kim Yong explains why HIV Registry leak was not disclosed earlier, apologises once more".
8. (12 February 2019). "Statement by Minister (Health) Mr Gan Kim Yong on the Unauthorised Possession and Disclosure of Information from HIV Registry".
9. Ng, Huiwen. (16 February 2019). "Chas subsidies for about 7,700 people miscalculated due to IT error: MOH".