Ethics, Professionalism and Remediation Courses for Health Professionals in Singapore

A letter from the Singapore Medical Council, the Singapore Nursing Board or another professional board is unsettling, but it starts a statutory process; it is not a finding against you. Committees can dismiss a complaint, give advice or a warning, or order further training, and what you do in the first days shapes everything that follows.

1. Read the letter twice and note the deadline. Write down exactly what is alleged, in the letter's own words, and the date your written explanation is due.
2. Tell your indemnity provider straight away, and if you are employed, your institution's medico-legal or risk team. Doctors and dentists employed in public healthcare institutions are covered by the MOHH Medical Malpractice Insurance scheme, which includes the costs of disciplinary and regulatory inquiries.
3. Secure the records. Copy the clinical notes, appointment logs, messages, consent forms and invoices. Never alter an original entry; any later addition must be a dated, signed addendum.
4. Do not contact the complainant about the complaint, and never ask anyone to withdraw a complaint in return for a refund or apology.
5. Write a private chronology for your advisers that separates what the record shows, what you remember and what you usually do.
6. Prepare your written explanation with advice, attaching all relevant documents. If you need more time, ask early and give a reason.

Our plain-language guide, Complaints and Disciplinary Inquiries in Singapore, explains each stage for every board, from the SMC Inquiry Committee to Disciplinary Tribunals and appeals. When you are ready to show learning, the remediation courses page groups courses by profession and by the concern raised.

Whether you are writing to an SMC Inquiry Committee, answering an SNB, SDC, SPC, AHPC or OOB Complaints Committee, preparing for a Disciplinary Tribunal or working under conditions, the questions underneath the process are similar. Our remediation courses are built around them.

1. Insight. Can you explain in your own words what went wrong, why it mattered to the patient and what your part was, without minimising it or blaming others? For doctors, Tribunals weigh this within the SMC Sentencing Guidelines and the framework in Wong Meng Hang v SMC [2018] SGHC 253.
2. Learning chosen for the concern. Match each allegation to the standard it engages in your board's code, then choose two to four courses on exactly that topic rather than a long list of unrelated certificates.
3. A reflective account. Every course ends with a structured reflective account: what happened, what you understand now, the effect on the patient and family, and what you now do differently. De-identify patients and write as if a committee will read it.
4. Evidence of change. A revised protocol, an audit of your own records, feedback from a supervisor and a dated timeline show that the change is real and lasting.
5. Presented through your adviser. Your indemnity provider or lawyer decides what to submit and when. We never contact your board, MOH or your employer.

No course can promise an outcome, and only the body that made an order can say whether a course meets it. Find remediation courses by profession or by concern, or go straight to your profession: doctors, nurses and midwives, dentists and OHTs, pharmacists, optometrists and opticians, allied health professionals.

Our Singapore courses are written for professionals registered with six of the seven statutory professional boards. Choose your profession to see the ethics and professionalism courses built on your board's code, or the remediation set for your board's complaints process.

• Doctors: Singapore Medical Council (SMC). Ethics and professionalism · Remediation
• Nurses and midwives, including enrolled nurses and Advanced Practice Nurses: Singapore Nursing Board (SNB). Ethics and professionalism · Remediation
• Dentists and oral health therapists: Singapore Dental Council (SDC). Ethics and professionalism · Remediation
• Pharmacists: Singapore Pharmacy Council (SPC). Ethics and professionalism · Remediation
• Optometrists and opticians: Optometrists and Opticians Board (OOB). Ethics and professionalism · Remediation
• Allied health professionals (diagnostic radiographers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiation therapists and speech-language therapists): Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC). Ethics and professionalism · Remediation

Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners are regulated by the TCM Practitioners Board, whose code and processes our courses do not cover. Psychologists are not yet statutorily registered: MOH announced in May 2026 that mandatory registration under the Allied Health Professions Act will follow, without a start date, so for now our allied health pages refer only to the five professions the AHPC registers.

Each board registers its professionals under its own Act, issues practising certificates and sets the standards of conduct it will hold them to: the SMC Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines (2016 edition, in force since 1 January 2017) with its Handbook on Medical Ethics; the SNB Code for Nurses and Midwives (2018); the SDC Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines (2018 edition, effective 1 January 2019); the SPC Code of Ethics (2015); and the AHPC and OOB codes of professional conduct.

Complaints run through each board's statutory process. For doctors, the Medical Registration Act was substantially amended from 1 July 2022: an Inquiry Committee now filters complaints first, a Complaints Committee investigates, mediation is available, and a Disciplinary Commission appointed by the Minister for Health appoints and oversees the Disciplinary Tribunals that hear formal charges. The other boards use Complaints Committees and disciplinary bodies set up under their own Acts, with different powers and appeal routes.

Continuing education is tied to practising certificate renewal and differs by board: doctors need at least 50 CME points for a two-year certificate, pharmacists 50 CPE points per two-year cycle, nurses and midwives an annual CPE requirement, and dentists a two-year CPE cycle that includes a mandatory Ethics Self-Assessment Exercise. Several cross-cutting laws apply to everyone, including the Healthcare Services Act 2020, the Personal Data Protection Act 2012, the Mental Capacity Act 2008 and, for advice to patients, section 37 of the Civil Law Act 1909.

• Mandatory medical ethics CME. For renewals and new practising certificates from 2026, doctors need 5 core points in medical ethics for a two-year certificate (3 for a one-year certificate), within the overall CME requirement.
• SNB moving to mandatory CPE. A pre-mandatory phase began on 1 September 2024. The current qualifying period runs from 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027, and the SNB says nurses and midwives without enough points may still renew for 2027. It has not yet announced the date enforcement begins.
• AHPC CPE becomes a renewal requirement from 1 January 2027, first applying to practising certificates expiring on 31 December 2028: 50 points for a two-year certificate, at least 10 of them core.
• Health Information Bill, passed on 12 January 2026, will require licensed providers to contribute key health data to the National Electronic Health Record. MOH intends it to commence in early 2027; it is not yet in force.
• Psychologist registration under the Allied Health Professions Act has been announced but not yet implemented.

We review course content against official sources when rules change. Content on this site was checked in October 2026.

The catalogue goes well beyond ethics. Its 53 courses cover professional conduct and honesty; a pair of ethics and professional standards courses for each of the six board groups; consent, confidentiality under the PDPA and communication in a multilingual setting; patient safety and medicines, including serious reportable events, high-alert medications and controlled drugs; records, CME and CPE portfolios and returning to practice; and the full path after a complaint, from responding to rebuilding trust. Forty-eight courses take about 3 hours (S$125); five take about 2 hours (S$95): Reflective Practice and the ethics and standards courses for optometrists and opticians and for allied health professionals.

Every course is written for Singapore: the codes your board actually applies, the Healthcare Services Act 2020, the PDPA and PDPC healthcare guidelines, the Mental Capacity Act 2008, section 37 of the Civil Law Act and the leading Singapore cases. Scenarios reflect Singapore practice, including family-centred decisions, elderly patients and caregivers, and patients who prefer Mandarin, Malay, Tamil or another language. See all 53 courses.

1. Enrol online and start straight away. Courses are self-paced, so you can study between shifts and resume where you stopped.
2. Work through the sections, each with Singapore scenarios and short knowledge checks.
3. Sit the 20-question final assessment. You need 16 correct answers (80%) to pass, and you can review and try again.
4. Complete the structured reflective account and download your Fitness To Practice certificate of completion, showing the course title, study hours and date.
5. Keep it with your records: your learning portfolio, a response to your board if your adviser agrees, or evidence for your employer.

They do not carry CME or CPE points. Whether you can claim the learning towards your CME or CPE requirement depends on your board's rules and on whether the relevant accreditor accepts it, so check before you rely on it.