Healthcare service providers are business entities that provide healthcare services, while healthcare professionals are healthcare-trained persons who are employed or engaged by healthcare service providers to deliver healthcare services.

Under HCSA, healthcare service can be classified into:

• Licensable healthcare services (e.g., acute hospital service, outpatient medical/ dental service and radiological service); and

• Non-licensable healthcare service (e.g., chiropractic service, TCM service, private psychological service and private physiotherapy service).

To provide a licensable healthcare service, a healthcare service provider must be granted the relevant service license under HCSA. To provide a non-licensable healthcare service, a HCSA licence is not required.

Healthcare professionals can be classified into:

• Registered healthcare professionals (e.g., Medical Practitioners, Nurses, Physiotherapists, Radiographers and Speech Therapists who are required to be registered under the respective legislative acts that govern them and hold valid practising certificates (PCs) before they can practise); and

• Non-registered healthcare professionals (e.g., clinical psychologists, podiatrists, chiropractors and ayurvedic medicine practitioners). Nonregistered healthcare professionals are self-regulated. As such, they need not be registered and does not need to hold valid PCs in order to practise.

Licensed healthcare service providers usually employ both registered and nonregistered healthcare professionals to deliver its services. For example, an acute hospital service provider may employ medical practitioners (registered under Medical Registration Act 1997), nurses (registered under Nurses and Midwives Act 1999), physiotherapists (registered under Second Schedule of the Allied Health Practitioners Act 2011 (AHPA)), clinical psychologists (currently self-regulated and not listed under Second Schedule of AHPA), audiologists (currently self-regulated and not listed under Second Schedule of AHPA), etc.

Non-licensed healthcare service providers (e.g., private physiotherapy/ speech therapy/ psychology/ audiology service providers; and chiropractic/ osteopathic/ ayurvedic medicine service provider) may or may not employ registered healthcare professionals to deliver its services.