Patient beds in corridors and make-shift tents, a phenomenon normally associated with poor developing countries, are now a common sight in at least one of our world class hospitals (see attached report in today’s ST). How far down will Singapore descend into the Third World? If Mr Lee Kuan Yew had brought Singapore from Third World to First in one generation, then his PM son has outdone him by bringing us back to Third World in less than half a generation!
Severe bed crunch in Singapore’s hospitals is not a new sight. There were reports of it some years back. I had also pointed this out in my essay on the Singapore economy that was released in February 2011, nearly 3 years ago. The relevant extract is as follows:
“…The low Government health budget has resulted in over-crowding of public hospitals with newspaper reports of patients lying in beds along corridors of hospital wards……
Currently there are 32 hospital beds per 10,000 population, slightly more than half the average number of 58 beds in high income countries. Other indicators also show Singapore lagging far behind, for example, 17 doctors per 10,000 population compared to an average of 28 doctors in other high income countries, and 53 nurses and mid-wives versus their 81.
Doubling Hospital Beds, Doubling Healthcare Personnel
There is an urgent need to increase the number of hospital beds, doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnel to the levels of the high income countries in the First World so as to benchmark Singapore to the world’s best. Not only do our citizens deserve this level of service, but it is what to expect from an aspiring world class medical hub.
This means Singapore needs to roughly double the number of hospital beds, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals…… A modern hospital in Singapore costs an average of $1.27 million per hospital bed to build (based on the cost of $700 million in building KTPH) , so the Government will need to spend $10 billion to double the number of hospital beds in public hospitals……
The Government should allocate a sum of $10 billion in a Hospitals Regeneration Fund to double the number of public hospital beds in the next 5 years or about 1,700 beds per year. The new hospitals should be spread out to the housing estates so as to facilitate easy public access……”
(from pp22-24 of essay inhttp://tanjeesay.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/new_economy_-_jobs_and_enterprise_singapore_15_feb_112.pdf )
The Hospitals Regeneration Fund is a key part of my proposed $60 billion plan to rejuvenate the Singapore economy. It will result in an additional 8,500 beds in public hospitals, many times more than the 1,900 hospital beds that the Health Ministry said it would build by 2020. Unless the Ministry plans and builds several times more beds, Singaporeans will continue to experience severe bed crunch for many years to come, even going beyond 2020.
Why has Singapore ended up in this state of neglect? Haven’t we been told ad nauseam that PAP ministers are the most talented and farsighted who can foresee problems far ahead before they surface? While the Cabinet must take collective responsibility, who was the key minister directly responsible for this problem?
Mr Khaw Boon Wan was Health Minister from 2004-2011. In this long period of 7 years, he would or should have realised the problem and could have implemented measures to solve it. But he didn’t or if he did, was not successful. Yet Mr Goh Chok Tong praised him as the “best health minister Singapore has ever had” (IES citation 17 Oct 2008). Obviously Mr Goh’s quality of judgement leaves much to be desired. It also casts doubt on all the other health ministers who preceded Mr Khaw, at least one of whom is still a serving minister in the current Cabinet.
Singaporeans are now living with and suffering from the consequences of PAP leaders’ lapse of judgement and competence, not just in the area of health but also in other key sectors such as transport, manpower, the environment and housing. We have a chance to change our fate in 2016. Will Singaporeans rise up to the challenge?
Tan Jee Say
*Jee Say was a Presidential candidate in the 2011 Presidential Election. The article first appeared on his facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TanJeeSay.