Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Health whether it is possible to release polyclinic next-day appointment slots in a few fixed tranches each day rather than have a single release of time slots at 10.00 pm.
Dr Janil Puthucheary: My response will also cover the matters raised in the written questions by Dr Tan Wu Meng.
Our healthcare system is facing increasing demands, as our people age and need more healthcare, including primary care. At the same time, the completion of new polyclinics that were planned had been delayed due to the pandemic.
As a result, some polyclinics have greater demand and less easy availability of appointments. Pending the development of new polyclinics, they are putting in place short-term measures to address this.
The polyclinics will set aside some slots for walk-in patients with urgent medical needs, as well as for elderly patients, particularly those who are frail and who have mobility issues. To do so, non-urgent cases may be given an appointment for another day or advised to seek treatment at a nearby Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) general practitioner (GP) clinic. Polyclinics will also try to leverage telemedicine as much as possible and contract private GPs to help deliver the service.
Some polyclinics already adopted the practice of releasing polyclinic appointments in tranches. However, this does not solve the issue of capacity constraint and in fact may frustrate patients more if they are repeatedly unable to book appointments.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) does not have the data requested by Member Dr Tan Wu Meng.
Ministry of Health
4 July 2023
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=oral-answer-3265
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 