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[h=1]DISMAL MEDICAL PRODUCTIVITY: DENTAL WAIT FOR 1 YEAR?[/h]
Post date:
21 Feb 2015 - 7:11pm
A friend was discharged from government hospital recently – after a 3-day stay (as a subsidised patient) – without being able to find a time slot with the relevant lab (in the hospital) for a scan (as an inpatient) to confirm the clinical diagnosis made by the doctors!
The reason given: there was already a long queue for the scan at the said lab.
The friend was told that his was not a life-threatening case. At least not yet. Short of killing the patient, undue delays may cripple or incapacitate or otherwise further weaken or damage the patient concerned.
However, he was lucky to be given a scan date (as an outpatient) a little over a month later (after his discharge from hospital). Otherwise, it would be typically three (3) months away.
We have been hearing of dental appointments that can take as long as a year.
What is really going on ?
Whereas we plan to build new airport terminals and upgrade existing ones to meet traffic demands for the next 20 years and more.
But we do not have capacity in our hospitals to meet the demand of not just today, but even that of yesterday and the day before ….
This friend would now have to make two trips to the hospital: one to have the scan done at the lab; another to get a reading of the scan from a doctor at the specialist clinic. This two trips could have been avoided if the scan could have been done during his 3-day hospital stay.
No wonder our national PRODUCTIVITY is declining over the last several years!?!
Does the Ministry of Health, as the regulator/licensor of hospitals, stipulate Quality of Service (QoS) standards for hospitals to comply?
Is there a QoS standard that specifies the kind of waiting time at different points of the hospital system: specialist clinics, surgery, specialist laboratories, etc.
If there are no such comprehensive QoS standards, then the regulator/licensor can only be seen to have seriously failed in its duties. And the hospitals would be able to get away with, in some cases, even murder!
Because the hospitals can claim to be compliant with the loose or loopholed rules and regulations set by the regulator/licensor.
National Productivity Impact
Post date:
21 Feb 2015 - 7:11pm
A friend was discharged from government hospital recently – after a 3-day stay (as a subsidised patient) – without being able to find a time slot with the relevant lab (in the hospital) for a scan (as an inpatient) to confirm the clinical diagnosis made by the doctors!
The reason given: there was already a long queue for the scan at the said lab.
The friend was told that his was not a life-threatening case. At least not yet. Short of killing the patient, undue delays may cripple or incapacitate or otherwise further weaken or damage the patient concerned.
However, he was lucky to be given a scan date (as an outpatient) a little over a month later (after his discharge from hospital). Otherwise, it would be typically three (3) months away.
We have been hearing of dental appointments that can take as long as a year.
What is really going on ?
Whereas we plan to build new airport terminals and upgrade existing ones to meet traffic demands for the next 20 years and more.
But we do not have capacity in our hospitals to meet the demand of not just today, but even that of yesterday and the day before ….
This friend would now have to make two trips to the hospital: one to have the scan done at the lab; another to get a reading of the scan from a doctor at the specialist clinic. This two trips could have been avoided if the scan could have been done during his 3-day hospital stay.
No wonder our national PRODUCTIVITY is declining over the last several years!?!
Does the Ministry of Health, as the regulator/licensor of hospitals, stipulate Quality of Service (QoS) standards for hospitals to comply?
Is there a QoS standard that specifies the kind of waiting time at different points of the hospital system: specialist clinics, surgery, specialist laboratories, etc.
If there are no such comprehensive QoS standards, then the regulator/licensor can only be seen to have seriously failed in its duties. And the hospitals would be able to get away with, in some cases, even murder!
Because the hospitals can claim to be compliant with the loose or loopholed rules and regulations set by the regulator/licensor.
National Productivity Impact
