TAN TOCK SENG HOSPITAL (Admission of confirmed tuberculosis cases to medical wards)

Mr Ng Yeow Chong asked the Minister for Health why confirmed tuberculosis cases are admitted to the Medical Wards in Tan Tock Seng Hospital not meant for such cases.

Mr Chua Sian Chin: Mr Speaker, Sir, there have been occasions where tuberculosis cases have been admitted to the Medical Wards in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. These were for the following reasons:

(a) it was not known that these patients at the time of admission were suffering from tuberculosis; or

(b) in those confirmed cases of tuberculosis, they were admitted for some other medical condition requiring investigation or treatment in a Medical Ward. It should be mentioned that the Medical Wards in other hospitals do occasionally, also for the same reasons, admit tuberculosis cases.

The Member for Mountbatten is assured that there is no danger whatsoever to other patients or their visitors in a ward where tuberculosis cases are present. A patient suffering from tuberculosis in a hospital is under treatment and in these circumstances is not infectious. If there is a chance that he is infectious, special precautions are taken, for example, by isolation in a separate room in the same ward, and his clothes and utensils are kept separate and are carefully sterilised.