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Singapore
has worst patient-doctor ratio: report
AFP
21
Feb 07
Singapore has the worst patient-to-doctor ratio
among developed countries and has embarked on a global effort to
entice doctors, a report said Wednesday.
Top health
ministry officials went to Australia and London last year to
convince Singaporean doctors studying or working there to return,
and to encourage top foreign doctors to practise in Singapore,
the Straits Times said.
It quoted the health ministry's
permanent secretary Yong Ying I, who was dispatched to London
last year, as saying Singapore has the worst patient-to-doctor
ratio among developed countries.
"We have very
efficient doctors and they work very hard. But somewhere along
the way we also don't have enough," the newspaper quoted
Yong as saying.
"If you want to bring down waiting
times, we need to recruit more doctors, much more than a few
percent."
The city-state is faced with an ageing
population but is also seeking to bolster its role as a top
provider of quality healthcare services for patients from
abroad.
Singapore, Southeast Asia's most advanced economy,
had a population of about 4.4 million with 6,748 doctors
registered in 2005, according to official statistics.
The
goal is to have one doctor per patient in public hospitals, up
from a ratio of one per every two, the report said.
The
country needs to produce 400-600 locally trained doctors
annually, up from the current level of more than 200, the paper
quoted Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan as saying.
Khaw
cautioned that "much as we will try to recruit as many as we
can, we will be lucky to half-succeed," which was why he
sent his top two ministry officials to scout for doctors abroad,
the report said.
Read how MM Lee Kuan Yew boasted
about Singapore's healthcare system:
"We
run a (healthcare) system where you have to co-pay...but you get
the attention…In Singapore, within half-an-hour, you would
be in SGH (Singapore General Hospital), TTSH (Tan Tock Seng
Hospital)...and within one-and-a-half to two hours flat, you'd
know what went wrong."
- MM Lee Kuan Yew on the
state of Singapore hospitals after his wife was flown home from
London after suffering a stroke there, Today, Nov 3, 2003
Now read about the reality:
My
dad was sent to the A&E department three times in two months
because of stroke and, each time, my family had to wait at least
six hours before he was pushed to a ward…When my dad
finally got to the ward, it was past 2am. And we had arrived at
the A&E department about 7pm; it took more than six hours
before my dad was seen by a neurologist. If my dad had been taken
to the ward earlier and been treated by a neurologist, his
chances of living might be higher…The neurologist told us
that my dad had the worst kind of stroke anyone could get. Sadly,
he was pronounced brain dead the next day.
- Ms Tan Tze
Yee, author of the above letter, Straits Times Forum, Aug 18,
2005
Recently,
my father, who is in his late 70s and has multiple illnesses and
end-stage renal failure, had to wait seven hours for a bed at the
Singapore General Hospital (SGH). We were told that as no bed was
available, he would be placed in the observation ward first. This
had happened many times before and we were prepared to wait for
one to two hours for a bed for him…However, it was not
until seven hours later that he was wheeled into the ward. During
this time, no doctor came to see him.
- Ms Rodziah
Shaari, author of the above letter, Straits Times Forum, Aug 13,
2005
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