Singapore public hospital quality of care deficient in Singapore? E.g. ICU, HD bed situation, critical care facility availability in public hospitals.
Is public hospital care deficient in Singapore? Is critical care unavailable?
Mostly, it is younger people (with probably fewer complications) who are admitted to private hospitals but older patients are admitted to public hospitals: "While hospital admissions rose in both the public and private sectors, the make-up of their patients is very different. Two in three patients admitted to private hospitals were aged 15 to 64, while only half of those in public hospitals were in this working age group.
Of the 555,284 hospital admissions last year, 425,691 were in public hospitals, with more than a third being patients above the age of 65 years." (ST, 16Oct 2017) https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/record-jumps-in-hospital-clinic-attendance-last-year
Are ICU and high dependency(HD) beds in short supply in public hospitals?
E.g. Singaporean heart attack patient was denied transfer to National Heart Center because sadly, there were no available ICU beds available for him to be transferred/ warded at NHC and thus he had no choice but to opt for life saving treatment at the private Gleneagles hospital. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/patient-could-not-get-place-in-sgh-hit-with-78k-bill
Perhaps, instead of just reporting on how many normal hospital ward beds are available, MOH should also make public and TRANSPARENT how many ICU and HD beds are actually available on a daily basis so that citizens can have genuine confidence that the necessary public healthcare is genuinely available even for the sickest patients. No point the minister just keep repeating that hospital medical care is available to all regardless of how wealthy when the only available care for the most critical patients is only available at the private hospital.
Disturbingly, nobody knows how many ICU and HD beds SGH or any of the public hospitals even have (/the proportion) but this data is open knowledge wrt private hospitals like Mt Elizabeth or Gleneagles hospital.
Perhaps public hospitals need to have TWICE the number of ICU/HD beds available for the sickest patients than private hospitals because patients admitted to public hospitals are probably much more sick being from the older age group. Public hospital's are also likely to have more normal ward beds filled unlike private hospitals which have more empty beds, thus as a proportion to the number of actual patients warded, public hospitals are likely to have a severe shortage of critical care (HD/ICU) beds available: thus based on actual normal ward hospital beds used, public hospitals need to have twice the number of critical care beds on its inventory as compared to private hospitals (as well as for standby for terrorism related/disaster situations should they occur).
Limited data on hospital bed availability with ICU/HD bed situation totally unknown:
https://www.moh.gov.sg/resources-st...titution-statistics/beds-occupancy-rate-(bor) :
Mount Elizabeth bed mix with even ICU and HD bed population made public/ transparent to all:
https://www.mountelizabeth.com.sg/about-us/mount-elizabeth-orchard
Gleneagles hospital:
https://www.gleneagles.com.sg/about-us
Is public hospital care deficient in Singapore? Is critical care unavailable?
Mostly, it is younger people (with probably fewer complications) who are admitted to private hospitals but older patients are admitted to public hospitals: "While hospital admissions rose in both the public and private sectors, the make-up of their patients is very different. Two in three patients admitted to private hospitals were aged 15 to 64, while only half of those in public hospitals were in this working age group.
Of the 555,284 hospital admissions last year, 425,691 were in public hospitals, with more than a third being patients above the age of 65 years." (ST, 16Oct 2017) https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/record-jumps-in-hospital-clinic-attendance-last-year
Are ICU and high dependency(HD) beds in short supply in public hospitals?
E.g. Singaporean heart attack patient was denied transfer to National Heart Center because sadly, there were no available ICU beds available for him to be transferred/ warded at NHC and thus he had no choice but to opt for life saving treatment at the private Gleneagles hospital. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/patient-could-not-get-place-in-sgh-hit-with-78k-bill
Perhaps, instead of just reporting on how many normal hospital ward beds are available, MOH should also make public and TRANSPARENT how many ICU and HD beds are actually available on a daily basis so that citizens can have genuine confidence that the necessary public healthcare is genuinely available even for the sickest patients. No point the minister just keep repeating that hospital medical care is available to all regardless of how wealthy when the only available care for the most critical patients is only available at the private hospital.
Disturbingly, nobody knows how many ICU and HD beds SGH or any of the public hospitals even have (/the proportion) but this data is open knowledge wrt private hospitals like Mt Elizabeth or Gleneagles hospital.
Perhaps public hospitals need to have TWICE the number of ICU/HD beds available for the sickest patients than private hospitals because patients admitted to public hospitals are probably much more sick being from the older age group. Public hospital's are also likely to have more normal ward beds filled unlike private hospitals which have more empty beds, thus as a proportion to the number of actual patients warded, public hospitals are likely to have a severe shortage of critical care (HD/ICU) beds available: thus based on actual normal ward hospital beds used, public hospitals need to have twice the number of critical care beds on its inventory as compared to private hospitals (as well as for standby for terrorism related/disaster situations should they occur).
Limited data on hospital bed availability with ICU/HD bed situation totally unknown:
https://www.moh.gov.sg/resources-st...titution-statistics/beds-occupancy-rate-(bor) :
Mount Elizabeth bed mix with even ICU and HD bed population made public/ transparent to all:
https://www.mountelizabeth.com.sg/about-us/mount-elizabeth-orchard
Gleneagles hospital:
https://www.gleneagles.com.sg/about-us
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