Babies Seeking Paediatric Care at KK Women's and Children's Hospital from 6.00 pm to 6.00 am in Past Five Years

7 Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health (a) how many babies sought paediatric care at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) from 6.00 pm to 6.00 am in the past five years; (b) what is the average waiting time during these hours; and (c) whether the Government will build more 24-hour outpatient paediatric clinics to take the load off KKH.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: In 2016 and 2017¹, 14,500 and 12,900 babies (those aged below one-year-old), respectively, sought paediatric care at KKH Children's Emergency (CE) from 6.00 pm to 6.00 am. The median waiting time was 20 minutes and 27 minutes respectively. Patients assessed to be urgent cases by KKH's CE triage will be attended to immediately.

Less urgent cases (or P3² cases) made up about one in three of these attendances. KKH has assessed that many of these less urgent cases can be adequately managed by primary care doctors. Hence, KKH is developing a community partnership network with primary care doctors³ to provide care to non-emergency cases. MOH is also studying the possibility of piloting extended-hours paediatric urgent care clinics in regions with many young families. These would be operated by primary care doctors, to handle non-emergency cases.

Besides KKH's CE, babies requiring emergency paediatric care can also seek treatment at the National University Hospital's (NUH) CE.