帕雷克（官委议员）先生询问卫生部长：

(a) 卫生部及其机构正在采取哪些措施缩小新加坡人预期寿命与健康寿命之间的差距？

(b) 根据卫生部的评估，雇主在提高新加坡人健康寿命方面是否发挥作用？(c) 如果是，如何发挥作用？

王乙康（卫生部长）先生：缩小目前健康寿命与寿命之间的10年差距是医疗保健的最终目标，我们所有的工作都围绕着这个目标。这包括努力扩大医疗保健能力以提高可及性，利用技术以可持续的方式改善医疗保健，尽可能将护理重心转移到社区和家庭，解决过度保险造成的“自助餐综合症”，发展我们的人力资源，以及非常重要的是，通过“健康SG”和“乐龄SG”等预防性护理战略增强人口健康。

雇主可以发挥重要作用，因为工作是我们生活中非常重要的一部分。雇主可以在很多方面做出贡献，但让我强调几个关键领域。

首先，也是非常关键的一点，就是能够尽可能长时间地雇用年长者，甚至是超过法定退休和再就业年龄的人，以便那些想工作的人可以继续工作。这可能意味着雇员和雇主共同努力，确保在调配和调整角色、职责和薪酬方面具有灵活性。贡献和学习的能力，以及有同事在身边是建立健康的主要因素。

其次，雇主可以采用良好的职场健康实践，倡导员工健康的生活方式，加强对职业病的监测和管理。

在这方面，卫生部和三方合作伙伴于去年7月联合发表了《关于“加强员工健康和福祉，支持健康SG”的三方声明》。向雇主提出的建议包括积极支持员工加入“健康SG”计划并实施促进健康的职场实践。

 Mr Neil Parekh Nimil Rajnikant asked the Minister for Health (a) what efforts are being taken by the Ministry and its agencies to reduce the gap between the health-span and lifespan of Singaporeans; (b) whether, in the Ministry’s assessment, employers have a role towards improving the health-span of Singaporeans; and (c) if so, how.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Reducing the current 10-year gap between health-span and life-span, is the ultimate objective of healthcare and which all our efforts revolve around. This includes efforts to expand healthcare capacity to enhance accessibility, leveraging technology to improve healthcare in a sustainable manner, shifting the centre of gravity of care to communities and homes as far as possible, tackling the "buffet syndrome" caused by excessive insurance, developing our manpower and, very importantly, building up population health through preventive care strategies such as Healthier SG and Age Well SG.  

Employers can play a major role because work is such a significant part of our lives. There are many areas where employers can contribute, but let me highlight a few key areas. 

First, and a very critical one, is to be able to employ older workers for as long as possible, even beyond statutory retirement and re-employment age, so that those who want to work can continue to do so. This may mean having employees and employers work together to ensure there is flexibility in deployment and in adjusting roles, responsibilities and remuneration. The ability to contribute and learn, and having colleagues around is a major factor that builds health.  

Second, employers can adopt good workplace health practices, advocate healthy lifestyle initiatives for employees, and strengthen monitoring and management of occupational diseases.

In this regard, the Ministry of Health and the tripartite partners jointly released the Tripartite Statement on “Enhancing Employee Health and Well-being in Support of Healthier SG” in July last year. Recommendations for employers included actively supporting Healthier SG enrolment among their employees and implementing health-promoting workplace practices.