SINGAPORE wants to move its level of medical specialisation up one rung - both with more specialties, and higher standards or care.

New specialist centres will be set up to meet changing needs. These could include centres for geriatric care for the rapidly ageing population or infectious diseases, given the global concern for emerging diseases like bird flu.

There will certainly be more possibilities than the government has the money to fund, said Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Friday.

So he is setting up committees of senior doctors to study the situation and pick specialties to invest in.

He also wants existing centres to take on more complex cases, do more research and improve standard of care.

Speaking of the next lap for specialist care in Singapore, or 'version 3.0', Mr Khaw asked: 'Should the strategy be more of the same?

'Which other medical specialties should we nurture for rapid development? How do we cope with rising demand for the services of the existing national specialty centres?'

Earlier this month, Mr Khaw announced the setting up of two new centres at the National University Hospital (NUH) - for cancer and heart care. They should work closely with the university to teach the next generation of doctors and to do more research.

The minister on Friday gave notice that that is the model he will pursue when the time comes to expand other specialties, such as for eye or neurological care.

He said: 'Incumbents will prefer to retain their monopoly, or near monopoly, while newcomers will favour a competitive outcome.'

Together with other four established specialty centres - eye, brain, skin and dental - the heart amd cancer centres should 'strive to be the standard-bearers' whose work can compare with the best in the world.

Also within their grasp: becoming the training centres for the region specialists and the referral centres for complex cases.

But he cautioned: 'Setting higher ambitions is not about mindlessly chasing foreign patients. This is not a numbers game, but a quality game.'

And he reminded all doctors here that their primary aim should be better care for Singaporeans.

They should use their talent and expertise to look for more accurate diagnoses, more effective treatments and at lower costs.

If they are good, foreign patients will come, But they should not pursue that as a goal, he stressed.

Turning to the day's event - the opening of the Children's Cancer Centre at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Mr Khaw said this was a major step forward for the hospital.

From humble beginnings it has become one of the biggest paediatric cancer centres in the region, with an 80 per cent cure rate for common childhood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.