Hospitals.SG

Singapore's Health Minister announced that his ministry will be hiring some 4,500 medical and healthcare professionals over the next two years. Announcing the manpower push in Parliament, Minister Khaw Boon Wan said this will increase the capacity of public hospitals and institutions, allow the sector “to do things we were not able to do before” and “transform the delivery” of healthcare in Singapore.

Minister of Health Khaw Boon Wan has allowed depression and schizophrenia to be added to the list of chronic illnesses managed under the Chronic Diseases Management Programme (CDMP). The list currently includes six diseases – diabetes mellitus, asthma, hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperlipidemia (lipid disorders including high cholesterol problems), stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). CDMP allows patients to get outpatient treatment from their general practitioners (GPs) (usually a family physician) and have the fees paid from their Medisave accounts.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan announced in Parliament last week that the Medisave withdrawal limits for medical operations at private hospitals will be increased starting June 2009. Current limits of $150~5,000 will go up substantially to a range of $250~7,550. The move is expected to affect only patients of B1 and higher class wards as the current limits already exceed patients' shares of the bills in more highly-subsidized B2 and C wards.

The Ministry of Health's allocation for Government Budget Year 2009 has increased by almost $1 billion to $3.7 billion. This is an increase of 34%. Speaking in Parliament last week, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan highlighted where this funds will go to. The indicative spendings within the ministry include:

Speaking in Parliament last week, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed statistics for the medical tourism sector of Singapore. Mr Khaw informed that the number of medical tourists is estimated by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) using exit surveys at Changi Airport. For year 2007 (the last year for which figures are available), there were 348,000 medical tourists. This was 15% less than the previous year, 2006 (410,000). While tourist numbers dropped, the dollar value expenditure went up to $1.7 billion (+30%) over that period.

A new training and certification centre for rank-and-file healthcare workers has been established. The centre, located at Jalan Bukit Merah, was officially opened by Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong on 16 January 2009. It will be run by Health Management International Ltd (HMI), a private healthcare and education/training provider.

With support from the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), trainees will get grants of up to 90% for their course fees under the agency's Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR).

In Parliament last week, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan spoke on the issue of medical negligence in response to questions from Member of Parliament (MP) Lee Bee Wah. He informed that, over the last five years, there were three cases of alleged medical negligence in Singapore's public hospitals that went to trial. In all three cases, the courts ruled in favour of the hospitals.

For cases that were settled out-of-court, there was an average of eight a year. Details of these cases were not known to the Health Ministry as non-disclosure terms were usually part of the settlements.

Singapore has introduced means testing for public hospital patients starting 1 January 2009. From the first day of the new year, the government will start assessing new patients' entitlement to subsidies for class B2 and class C wards based on their tax-declared incomes or, for non-working patients, the value of their homes.

While income disclosure itself is not mandatory, patients who refuse to do so, effectively opt out of the scheme, and will have their subsidies minimized, similar to that of the highest earning group - currently 50% for class B2 and 65% for class C wards.

In Singapore, the primary healthcare role is fulfilled by government polyclinics and private clinics. The polyclinics provide subsidised outpatient medical care, health screening and pharmacy services, with some offering dental services as well. The Ministry of Health states that only 20% of primary healthcare is currently provided by the polyclinics versus 80% by private medical practitioners.
There are currently eighteen polyclinics located throughout the island, and these are managed by the two vertically integrated* delivery networks or clusters, National Healthcare Group (NHG) and Singapore Health Services (Singhealth), that were formed in year 2000.
* The two clusters also manage the government's restructured hospitals.

See:

• List of Polyclinics (Addresses)
• List of Polyclinics (Operating Hours & Appointment Telephone Nos)

The Ministry of Health commissioned a survey on opinions of Singapore's public/restructured hospitals and polyclinics during the later part of last year.

The latest annual Patient Satisfaction Survey, done independently by Media Research Consultants Pte Ltd, tabulated patients' opinions in terms of satisfaction with services, as well as their willingness to recommend those hospitals/clinics to others.