SINGAPORE: Singapore’s new Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong has announced further investment into the city-state’s dental infrastructure. Speaking at this year’s Dentist’s Pledge Affirmation Ceremony of the Singapore Dental Council, he said that his ministry will look into the possibility of enhancing its capacity to better support dental research and training. As a first step, the annual intake of students at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Dentistry will be raised from 48 to 80 by the year 2020.

During his speech, Yong pointed to the Primary Care Partnership Scheme, which was recently expanded and now subsidises tertiary dental procedures like crowns and root-canal treatment in private practices for an estimated additional 700,000 Singaporeans. He said that a working group has also been established to strategise the development and implementation of a new specialty, including geriatric and special needs dentistry, a field of care that according to him needs development owing to the city-state’s rapidly ageing population.

Earlier this month, the ministry announced an initiative to encourage private practices to publish their average fees for several kinds of dental treatment, a practice the ministry has followed for fees charged by public institutions for years.

Yong, who is a member of the governing People’s Action Party, took over office after the general elections from long-term Minister for Health Khaw Boon Wan, who is currently serving as the country’s Minister for National Development. After he was sworn in, Yong launched a campaign for reviewing the physical capacities of the ministry, amongst other issues.

In recent years, patients in the city-state were repeatedly complaining about extended waiting lists for appointments in government-run dental clinics.