Date: November 30, 2025

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We refer to the recent articles, “Allied health professionals to be trained to support patients holistically: Ong Ye Kung” (20 Nov) and “Allied Health Training Pathways: Revamping AHP Training” by the Ministry of Health (28 Nov).

 

Safeguarding Safe, High-Quality Care Through Professional Expertise

Speech and Language Therapy Singapore (SALTS) affirms that speech-language therapy is a specialised healthcare profession that plays a critical role in the assessment and management of communication, swallowing, and feeding needs across the lifespan. Speech-language therapists (SLTs) serve individuals from infancy through adulthood, including those in acute, rehabilitative, community, geriatric, and palliative care settings.

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The complexity of communication and swallowing disorders means that accurate diagnosis, timely intervention, and safe management require advanced discipline-specific knowledge, supervised clinical training, and sound clinical reasoning. As regulated allied health professionals, SLTs bear direct responsibility for patient safety, quality of care, and ethical practice. Substantial time and resources are invested in training, mentoring, and developing SLTs to ensure that patients receive care that is effective, safe, and evidence-based.

 

Distinct Allied Health Disciplines Serve Distinct Patient Needs

SALTS recognises the importance of interprofessional and transdisciplinary collaboration, especially in community and integrated care settings where coordinated teamwork can improve patient outcomes. When clearly defined and properly scoped, cross-disciplinary exposure can help streamline workflows and support more holistic care.

 

However, short-term or modular courses cannot replace the depth of fully accredited professional training, nor can they equip someone to work within another profession’s scope of practice. SLT involves specialised knowledge in areas that cannot be safely condensed without compromising care.

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While transdisciplinary exposure supports teamwork, transdisciplinary substitution, where minimally trained staff take on specialised clinical tasks, risks poorer outcomes, reduced monitoring accuracy, and delayed intervention. Patients are safest and best served when each allied health discipline contributes its full expertise within a coordinated team.

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Upholding rigorous, profession-specific training is not about protecting silos; it is about ensuring every patient receives safe, accurate, and effective care across the continuum.

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Allied Health Professionals are distinct disciplines, each with its own educational philosophy, competencies, and professional values. SALTS supports the positions of the Singapore Physiotherapy Association (SPA) and the Singapore Association of Occupational Therapists (SAOT) in upholding the integrity and rigour of allied health professional training. This stance is also consistent with international Speech-Language Therapy benchmarks (e.g., RCSLT, ASHA), which affirm that core training requirements cannot be compressed without impacting safety and quality.

 

Impact on the Current Workforce and Public Assurance

Clear guidance is essential to reassure the public and maintain confidence in Singapore’s allied health workforce. While current discussions focus on changes within the academic pipeline, it is equally important to address how any new model will affect the existing workforce of practising Speech-Language Therapists. Upskilling initiatives must protect clinical standards, provide adequate depth, and avoid placing specialised responsibilities on staff who have not undergone full accredited training. SALTS will continue engaging MOH to ensure that both future graduates and today’s clinicians remain supported, collaborative, and equipped to deliver safe, evidence-based care.

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For any questions or concerns, please contact us at admin@salts.org.sg.

 

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1997, January 1). Multiskilled personnel. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. https://www.asha.org/policy/PS1997-00225/

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RCSLT 2018 the RCSLT five core capabilities guiding the development of the. (n.d.). https://www.rcslt.org/wp-content/uploads/media/Project/RCSLT/core-capabilities-nqp-final.pdf