SINGAPORE GENERAL HOSPITAL (Preliminary assessment of services)

Dr S. Vasoo asked the Acting Minister for Health if he will give a preliminary assessment of the services rendered by Singapore General Hospital since it was restructured.

The Acting Minister for Health (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Singapore General Hospital has, since its restructuring on 1st April 1989, been able to properly staff and manage departments, and to reorganise and streamline work methods and procedures in many areas, thereby improving the level of service to the public. These improvements have been appreciated by its patients, as reflected in the results of a patient assessment survey involving more than 600 patients carried out early this month. The survey showed that:

83% of the repeat outpatients felt that the outpatient clinic services have improved. 55% of the first time outpatients rated the clinic services as good or very good.

70% of the repeat inpatients said that the level of ward service has improved. 78% of first time admissions rated the ward services as good or very good.

Let me give Members a brief description of some of the improvements that have been introduced:

In the area of recruitment and reorganisation of manpower, as an autonomous organisation, SGH has been able to recruit badly-needed personnel, and to redeploy manpower for better efficiency. For example, it has employed additional clerks and nursing assistants, thereby freeing the highly skilled nurses who were previously engaged in clerical and minor nursing duties to concentrate on direct patient care.

SGH has also been able to simplify and streamline many of the operating procedures and systems. These have reduced the number of queues and waiting time for patients. For example, the average registration time at the Specialist Outpatient Clinics has been reduced by more than half, from 30 minutes to 12 minutes now.

In most outpatient clinics, the average waiting time to see the doctor after registration has also been reduced, from about 90 minutes to 45 minutes.

SGH will be looking into improving the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department this year so as to reduce the waiting time for emergency cases.

In the Medical Records Office, improvements have also been introduced. Following the reorganisation of the Medical Records Office, 98% of the 1,500 medical records needed daily in the Specialists Outpatient Clinics are now readily available when needed, compared to 92-95% previously. This means that the number of outpatients experiencing long waiting times while waiting for their medical records to be located has been reduced from an average of 80 each day to only 20 today. The hospital is working towards further reducing this figure.

The Laboratory Services have also been improved. These are key support departments. After restructuring, SGH has been able to reduce the reporting time for laboratory tests from an average of three days to one day. For the very commonly requested tests, reporting time has been reduced from one day to only three hours. This means that diagnoses that are dependent upon these tests can be made that much sooner, and treatment initiated quicker.

All these and other measures have led to improved service levels to the patients and to the public.

Dr S. Vasoo (Tiong Bahru GRC): Sir, this is an improvement obviously. I would like to ask the Minister whether he is aware that there is increasing difficulty of the lower-income group to use SGH medical services. I would want to find out whether he would be prepared to introduce class C wards in the Singapore General Hospital.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the original plan was to introduce class C wards into SGH together with the re-building of the other older hospitals. However, in view of the many requests from colleagues in this House and from members of the public, I have asked SGH to consider whether this can be done earlier.

Dr Wang Kai Yuen (Bukit Timah): Sir, may I ask the Minister whether he would consider SGH as a Government hospital or not a Government hospital.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, SGH is a Government-owned hospital.

Dr Wang Kai Yuen: Sir, would he then explain why CPF would not recognise the rate of fees of SGH as the official rate so that Medisave can be used to offset the costs incurred by the patient?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, for the purposes of Medisave reimbursements, Medisave itself has a schedule of fees that can be used for deductions or for reimbursements from Medisave accounts.

Dr Vasoo: Sir, in view that there is an urgency for the lower-income group to use medical services in the Singapore General Hospital, would the Minister consider introducing class C wards by the end of this year.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, SGH is looking into it. Let us give them time. 12.50 pm