Polyclinic Referrals for Subsidised Rates at Specialists Clinics in Restructured Hospitals

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Health whether his Ministry will review the practice of obtaining referrals from polyclinics before one can enjoy subsidised rates when visiting the specialists outpatient clinics at restructured hospitals.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: The vast majority of medical conditions can be managed in primary care, either in our polyclinics or GP clinics. But some patients may need specialist consultation. To allow us to better target specialist resources and subsidies for patients with clinical needs, there is a need to ensure that only those requiring specialist services are referred to Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOC). This is why we require patients to be first assessed by the polyclinic for referrals to the SOC as subsidised patients. Besides referrals from polyclinics, inpatients discharged from the acute hospitals' subsidised wards requiring continual outpatient specialist care are also eligible for subsidised care at SOCs because they are already assessed by the hospital.

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In addition, GPs under the Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS) have also been able to directly refer patients in the scheme to subsidised Specialist Outpatient Centres (SOCs) in our Restructured Hospitals (RHs), since 2000.

The expansion of the eligibility criteria for PCPS from 15 January will enable more Singaporeans to be eligible for direct referrals to subsidised SOCs through their PCPS GPs if their conditions require specialist care. My Ministry will continue to work our various stakeholders, including community partners, to encourage more Singaporeans to sign up for PCPS.