OUTPATIENT DISPENSARY IN SIGLAP ESTATE (Opening date)

Mr Sim Boon Woo asked the Minister for Health when the Outpatient Dispensary on the ground floor of one of the blocks of the Siglap Estate will be opened.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health (Mr Sia Kah Hui) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, I have been asked by the Minister to answer. As the Ministry of Health does not have the full complement of doctors and trained staff to man the present 26 Government Outpatient Dispensaries situated all over the island, it sees no useful purpose in attempting to open yet another Outpatient Dispensary on the ground floor of the Siglap Housing Estate mentioned by the hon. Member for Changi.

In fact, this particular constituency, i.e., Siglap, is already well served by a 3-doctor Government Outpatient Dispensary known as Still Road Outpatient Dispensary, situated at the junction of Changi Road and Still Road and which is not fully utilised as yet.