For years, the government has been implementing measures such that healthcare cost remains affordable for Singaporeans. This is also evident in the recent introduced Pioneer Generation package in Budget 2014. However, we should always try to strike a balance between quality and affordability. After all, any accident that occur during certain medical treatments can cost the patient’s life, or affect the patient’s ability to perform routine activity.
Recently, my mother visited the Ophthalmology Clinic at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) wanting to have cataract surgery. The diagnosis took the entire afternoon as many tests, including test for colour blindness, were performed. Though I see no correlation between colour blindness and cataract surgery, it is better safe than sorry.
The clinic scheduled a date for her surgery but she requested for re-schedule. Even before informing her on the available dates, the clinic informed her that they will have to re-examine her if she choose not to have the surgery on the date scheduled. It is an unknown of the motive behind the re-examination. To a layman, it may be just to deter her from asking for re-schedule.
We went to the private practice instead. Many of the tests preformed at TTSH were omitted. This certainly creates a confusion — which are the necessary tests needed for cataract surgery? The surgery was eventually performed by this surgeon and it took place at a private hospital as the surgeon could not perform surgery at government hospitals.
The government should consider allowing such surgeons to perform surgery at government hospitals. This would help patients to spend less money, yet being treated by doctors one prefer. It is the personalized service of doctors that affect patients and not so much the infrastructure. In addition, while making healthcare cost affordable, the quality of healthcare service should be of a certain standard.
Adrian Tan
TRS Contributor