SINGAPORE: A holistic approach to healthcare needs to be taken to empower consumers to make the right choice, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong at the ministerial roundtable of the Ministerial Meeting on Universal Health Coverage on Wednesday (Feb 11).

Speaking during the Ministerial Roundtable discussion, Mr Gan said there is a lot of scope for Singapore to move upstream in health promotion.

In fact, going upstream in health promotion does not require a lot of money and investment, because money and investment is not the key determining factor in health promotion, said Mr Gan. It's got to do with our programming, our environment, many factors. We want to find a way to encourage healthy living to become natural.

Mr Gan said such a strategy is easier and more sustainable in encouraging healthy habits than implementing regulations.

The World Health Organization's director-general Dr Margaret Chan also called on the medical community to pay closer attention to their patients when it comes to consumer behaviour.

"The sugary drink industry - they invest so much money in terms of R&D, understanding consumer behaviour, taste preferences and what takes them to buy their products, said Dr Chan. So this is another lesson we have to learn. We always talk about being patient-centred but we ignore our patients. How many doctors look at the patient and do a proper physical check? They just look at the screen of their computer. Please look at your patients and not the screen."

Closing the discussion, Mr Gan outlined how universal health coverage must be affordable, accessible and sustainable. To achieve this, he said the economy must remain robust.

"All our countries, all our governments will have the resources to implement universal healthcare and all our people will have income, will have employment, will help them afford the healthcare, said Mr Gan. And in fact, employment and economic growth is a key driver for our universal healthcare.

During the ministerial roundtable discussion, health ministers from several countries such as Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand shared the lessons they had learned about universal health coverage. This included the importance of having a good database for administrative work, encouraging health promotion and having food and beverage industry players take a larger role in promoting healthy choices.

Mr Gan also shared his thoughts on the lessons learned from the ministerial meeting.

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Holistic approach to healthcare needed to empower consumers: Gan Kim Yong