Karen: Medical bill still lower at polyclinics

[makapaaa]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Medical bill still lower at polyclinics
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->ON TUESDAY, Mr Thannimalai A.R.S.N. Arunasalam asked: 'Can the Health Ministry ensure that medication is priced similarly in hospitals and polyclinics?'.
The anomaly is historical. Hospitals and polyclinics have been working towards some harmonisation. The pace has to be slow as otherwise it would cause a sharp rise in prices for some patients.
Meanwhile, while some drugs may be more expensive in polyclinics than in hospitals, consultation fees, laboratory investigation, X-ray and other charges are generally cheaper. The total cost incurred by a patient in a polyclinic is therefore less than if he were to be treated in a hospital.
Because of heavy subsidies, patients have no problems paying polyclinic bills. Karen Tan (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health

 

[scroobal]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Medical bill still lower at polyclinics
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->ON TUESDAY, Mr Thannimalai A.R.S.N. Arunasalam asked: 'Can the Health Ministry ensure that medication is priced similarly in hospitals and polyclinics?'.
The anomaly is historical. Hospitals and polyclinics have been working towards some harmonisation. The pace has to be slow as otherwise it would cause a sharp rise in prices for some patients.
Meanwhile, while some drugs may be more expensive in polyclinics than in hospitals, consultation fees, laboratory investigation, X-ray and other charges are generally cheaper. The total cost incurred by a patient in a polyclinic is therefore less than if he were to be treated in a hospital.
Because of heavy subsidies, patients have no problems paying polyclinic bills. Karen Tan (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health

Real sick of the word "subsidies". Now "heavy subsidies". Why don't they just charge what they feel they consider as "market prices" . I bet you they will lose the GE. These so called subsidies are keeping them in power just as the Rental Control allowed PAP to consolidate their grip on Singapore.

The whole world applies some sort of price control mechanisms to help the needy and less capable as a responsible government does as part of its social obligations and as an intrument to manage social equity. Medical care is an essential not a luxury such as abalone soup.

They might as well put a huge banner outside the polyclinic with the words - heavily subsidised.

 

[ronaldinho]

whatever, just doon't suay suay kena crap doctor



Woman died after doc presribed high dose of digoxin by mistake

Straits Times June 28, 2006 by Khushwant Singh & Leong Su-Lin

Woman, 88, died after doc prescribed high dose by mistake
Coroner records open verdict because of inconclusive evidence


A DOCTOR mistakenly prescribed too high a dose of heart medication - and her patient ended up dead about two months later.

Clementi Polyclinic physician, Dr Diana Santos, admitted her error but said she discovered it soon afterwards, and called the pharmacy to correct the dosage for 88-year-old Madam Koh Ah Tow.

However, the two pharmacy technicians who attended to Madam Koh denied that Dr Santos had talked to either of them about correcting the prescription, which was for four times her normal dosage of digoxin - a medicine that regulates the contraction of the heart.

At the inquest into Madam Koh's death yesterday, State Coroner Tan Boon Heng said 'the evidence... suggests some aspects of medical mismanagement but due to the inconclusive nature of the evidence', he returned an open verdict.

He said: 'It would not be appropriate at this inquiry to clearly allocate criminal responsibility to any individual.'

The inquest heard that Madam Koh visited the polyclinic for her regular check-up on March 26 last year.

Apart from inadvertently increasing the daily dosage of digoxin from the intended 0.0625mg to 0.25mg, Dr Santos also slightly increased Madam Koh's dosage of warfarin - an anti-coagulant that thins the blood.

The coroner noted that the increased dosage of warfarin would have required Madam Koh to return to see the doctor one or two weeks later, but Dr Santos had scheduled a check-up two months later because the patient was old and not very mobile.

In her evidence yesterday, Dr Santos, 36, agreed that one to two weeks should be the proper interval for a follow-up visit due to the increased warfarin.

Madam Koh died nine weeks later on June 3. The cause of death was heart failure. Her condition had been complicated by pneumonia and chronic kidney failure.

Heart expert B.A. Johan of the National Heart Centre had informed the coroner that the excessive digoxin could have contributed to Madam Koh's heart failure.

Madam Koh's son, Mr Lian Teck Kah, said yesterday that family members had asked the pharmacist why the medication had been changed and the pharmacist just said that that was what the doctor had prescribed.

'I was angry at first when I found out about the mistake but after a while, I thought there's no point because she was quite old,' the 58-year-old retiree said in Mandarin.

'My mother is already dead. I don't want to harm the doctor. The doctor's quite young; she made a mistake, let her think about it.'

The family believes a communication problem might have contributed to the error.

Mr Lian said his mother had, for some time, been seeing a doctor at the polyclinic who could speak Hokkien. But the doctor became pregnant and was no longer at the clinic, so his mother ended up seeing Dr Santos.

He was annoyed because they had asked for a doctor who could communicate with his mother in Hokkien, or one who could speak Mandarin, which is what he and his wife speak.

They were told they could not choose a doctor.

They believe the mistake would not have occurred if they could have communicated with the doctor.

The coroner noted that the polyclinic had implemented a new system to prevent similar errors. It now requires that amendments be made on a new prescription form, and not communicated by telephone.