AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE SERVICE FOR THE AGED SICK

Dr S. Vasoo asked the Acting Minister for Health what plans are being made to provide affordable health care service for the growing number of aged sick.

The Acting Minister for Health (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Mr Speaker, Sir, my Ministry has taken steps to ensure that health care for the aged sick will continue to remain affordable.

Heavily subsidised outpatient treatment is available at all Government polyclinics. Patients over the age of 65 pay only 50% of the already subsidised normal attendance and prescription fees.

All Government and restructured hospitals will continue to have subsidised beds. My Ministry has established in Tan Tock Seng Hospital a 70-bedded Department of Geriatric Medicine. Toa Payoh Hospital, after its redevelopment, will also have a Department of Geriatric Medicine with 80 beds.

We are building a Community Hospital at Ang Mo Kio. This will allow inpatient care for the elderly sick who require more time to convalesce from acute illness or after operations. Charges for subsidised B2 and C class patients at the Community Hospital are expected to be lower than that in the acute Government hospitals.

My Ministry will continue to support the Home Nursing Foundation to provide home nursing care, day care and rehabilitation for the elderly sick. This will reduce the need for prolonged hospitalisation with consequent savings in hospital expenses.

Finally, for the elderly sick who genuinely cannot afford to pay the heavily subsidised fees in our hospitals or clinics, my Ministry will ensure that their charges incurred are waived.

Dr S. Vasoo (Tiong Bahru GRC): Sir, may I ask the Acting Minister whether there are plans to implement more supportive health care services in housing estates where there are a growing number of senior citizens and aged sick?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, my Ministry has started to establish senior citizens health care centres at some of the polyclinics. The plan is to establish one in each of the new generation polyclinics that will be opened in the future. This will eventually result in about 16 of these polyclinics having these senior citizens health care centres which provide a wide range of services for the elderly, including rehabilitation, day care and free health screening for senior citizens.

Dr Aline K Wong (Tampines GRC): Sir, may I ask the Acting Minister for Health, when his Ministry has not really taken much action to institute programmes of local training for physiotherapists and other para-medical staff, how can he say that he is doing his best to ensure that the care of elderly patients will be indeed moving in that optimal direction?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the training of physiotherapists and occupational therapists need not be carried out locally because there are very well-established centres in other parts of the world to which we are already sending our local trainees. The Ministry will continue to ensure that the PSC continues to offer scholarships for physiotherapy and for occupational therapy and we will also actively encourage the restructured hospitals to send their own trainees abroad for training.

Mr Loh Meng See (Kampong Glam): Sir, the Acting Minister for Health mentioned just now about the new generation polyclinics. Presumably they are in the newer housing estates, but the large numbers of senior citizens are mainly in the city areas. Can I have his assurance that the senior citizens located in the city district will not be left out as far as senior citizens health centres are concerned?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the senior citizens are distributed not just in the city but also in the older housing estates. We will make sure that they all have easy access to such centres.