The Straits Times Forum, 22 Sep 2006

 

Fees aside, pick the right hospital and doctor We refer to the article titled " Changi General Hospital's fees dip" published in ST on 20 Sep 2006. We applaud MOH's plan to make hospital fees more transparent and this has also resulted in the hospitals being more competitive to reduce their fees by cutting down waste. This will ultimately benefits the patients. However, we would also like to highlight to the readers that one should not just choose a hospital based on how cheap that particular treatment is compared to another hospital because there are other equally important criteria to consider. To choose a suitable hospital for one's illness, in addition to comparing the fees charged by the respective hospitals, one should also look at the type of specialised services available, how many specialists and subspecialists there are for that particular medical services and also the number of patients treated for that condition. Some hospitals may have cheaper fees but they do not have as much experience and also the required subspecialists available to treat these illnesses, and this may not be ideal compared to another hospital which has more subspecialists in that area, especially in rare and complicated diseases, even though its fees maybe slightly more. With the advances in medicine today, for the more complicated diseases, in addition to hospital fees, its important to consult the right specialists and  subspecialists in the right hospital who has the experience of treating these diseases for more optimal treatment. Thanks You. Ms Virginia Goh Min Wen Dr Victor Teoh Authors of book "Picking of the Right Hospital, Right Doctor in Singapore" The Straits Times Forum, 7 Nov 2006   Ask right questions on specialist's treatment We refer to the article; "no specialist would see injured child in hospital" of November 3, Straits Times. We sympathise with the writer's unfortunate experience in trying to find an opthalmologist to treat her child. we are not able to comment on why some of the opthalmologists were uncontactable or too busy to come and see Mrs Patricia Chong's child. but we would like to share with readers the importance of understanding sub-specialist expertise in each of the medical specialties and also the accredition of doctors before they are allowed to practise in a particular hospital. In complicated medical conditions, a specialist who has more experience in a particular sub-specialty would be better in maanging the patient's illness or injury, compared with another specialist who does not sub-specialise in that particular area. This might be the situation in Mrs Chong's case where one of the opthalmologist mentioned that he did not treat paediatric eye cases. Not all specialists are allowed to practise in all the hospitals in singapore. If a specialist wants to practise in a particular hospital, he needs to be accreditated by the hospital's accreditation committee first. Thus, it is important for a patient to find out from the hospital whether it has the specialists who are sub-specialists in that particular area for the medical condition. And if the patient wants a particular doctor to treat him in that hospital, he would also need to find out whether the doctor has been accredited to practise in that hospital, before going there to seek treatment. Otherwise, the patient may need to go to another hospital for treatment, as not all hospitals in singapore are equal. Ms Virginia Goh Min Wen Dr Victor Teoh Authors of the book  "Picking the right hospital, right doctor in singapore" The Straits Times Forum (internet edition), 15 Nov 2006     Measures to protect patients from "half-baked" doctors WE REFER to both articles, 'What ails biomedical research in Singapore' by Dr Lee Wei Ling (ST, Nov 4) and 'Is there risk of having 'half-baked' doctors?' by Dr Ho Ting Fei (ST, Nov 10). We applaud both writers for their thought-provoking concerns and we share with them and also the public on the need to have competent physicians to treat their patients. At the moment, there are already certain checks in place to supervise and control inexperienced physicians. Currently, some doctors in Singapore are granted only conditional or temporary registration for a specific duration of time, if they are trained overseas, for them to work under supervision by more experienced senior doctors in the larger health institutions before they can be granted full registration to allow them to practise independently. This policy can be extended to this group of newly graduated clinician-scientists, to ensure they are experienced enough in their clinical work, before they are allowed to practise on their own. Current policy of already establishing a specialist register and a proposed family physician register will be useful to ensure that doctors who are qualified specialists or qualified family physicians have undergone sufficient training in these areas. This policy will also act as a check to ensure that these clinician-scientists are competent enough to practise in their clinical practice before they can be certified as specialists or family physicians. All hospitals, both government and private, should have an accreditation committee to vet a doctor's credentials and experience before he is allowed to practise in their hospitals. At the same time, these policies should be complemented with greater awareness by the public in choosing the right doctor for their medical condition, as mentioned in our earlier letter, 'Ask right questions on specialist's treatment' (ST, Nov 7). In this aspect, patients should regularly ask their doctors (both specialists and GPs) if they are on the Singapore Medical Council's full registration or conditional or temporary registration, are they fully qualified specialists on the Ministry of Health's specialist register, what type of training and experience do they have in their subspeciality areas and so on. For surgeons, patients can ask in how many cases of similar surgical conditions have they performed surgery before, to assess their experience and for GPs, whether they have obtained the graduate diploma in family medicine or masters in family medicine, which is useful for their family medicine practice. These questions will enable and empower patients to choose the right doctor for their medical condition. We hope, with these checks from the Government and patients, it will be sufficient to protect patients from inexperienced doctors, in general, while at the same time, these clinician-scientists will be able to contribute to the advance of medical care in Singapore. Virginia Goh Min Wen (Ms) Dr Victor Teoh The Straits Times Forum, 7 Nov 2006   Medical tourism can be a win-win for all WE REFER to the article, 'S'pore can draw medical travellers from US: Expert' (ST, Feb 28). With globalisation and increased health-care costs in developed countries like the United States and Europe, patients in these countries are looking for cheaper health-care alternatives with similar high standards in other countries. Singapore is one of these countries. Much has been done by the Ministry of Health and the Singapore Tourism Board to market medical tourism to foreign patients. The medical-tourism sector can be one of the new pillars of economic growth. Local patients would also benefit from the influx of foreign patients, as these patients would stay in non-subsidised wards in government hospitals and the higher fees they pay can be used to subsidise Singaporeans staying in the subsidised wards. However, much more can be done to promote medical tourism as neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Thailand are also competing for the same group of foreign patients, with cheaper rates and almost-similar quality of care. Some of the strategies the Government can consider include liberalising the advertisement guidelines on health care to enable hospitals and doctors to market their services more effectively. Electronic medical consultation would be another option to promote medical tourism as some potential patients may wish to 'consult' doctors via e-mail before they come to Singapore for treatment. A more transparent hospital-fee comparison, especially among the private hospitals, will be useful for potential foreign patients. Greater focus on attracting foreign patients to Singapore could further improve the overall standard of health care here and achieve a 'win-win' situation for Singaporeans and the foreign patients. Virginia Goh Min Wen (Ms) Dr Victor Teoh Authors of the book, Picking The Right Hospital, Right Doctor In Singapore