Babies Seeking Paediatric Care at KK Women's and Children's Hospital from 6pm to 6am in Past Five Years

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health (a) how many babies sought paediatric care at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) from 6pm to 6am in the past five years; (b) what is the average waiting time during these hours; and (c) whether the Government will build more 24-hour outpatient paediatric clinics to take the load off KKH.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: In 2016 and 2017 1 , 14,500 and 12,900 babies (those aged below one-year-old), respectively, sought paediatric care at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) Children’s Emergency (CE) from 6 pm to 6 am. The median waiting time was 20 minutes and 27 minutes respectively. Patients assessed to be urgent cases by KKH’s CE triage will be attended to immediately.

Less urgent cases (or P3 2 cases) made up about one in three of these attendances. KKH has assessed that many of these less urgent cases can be adequately managed by primary care doctors. Hence, KKH is developing a community partnership network with primary care doctors 3 to provide care to non-emergency cases. MOH is also studying the possibility of piloting extended-hours paediatric urgent care clinics in regions with many young families. These would be operated by primary care doctors, to handle non-emergency cases.

Besides KKH’s CE, babies requiring emergency paediatric care can also seek treatment at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) CE.

Note(s) to Question No(s) :

1 Accurate data broken down by the hour was available from 2016 onwards.

2 These refer to conditions classified as Priority 3 or 4 under the Patient Acuity Category Scale (PACS) which generally refer to ambulant minor emergency cases such as fevers, fractures, sprains, superficial injuries, constipation and vomiting.

3 This will be similar to Changi General Hospital’s GPFirst scheme, in which patients are incentivised to seek initial treatment of non-urgent medical conditions at participating GPs. If they are assessed to require a higher level of care, the GPs will refer them to CGH’s Emergency Department and give them queue priority and a subsidised bill.