Data on Outpatient Visits for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Spondyloarthritis

11 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Health (a) for each year in the past five years, for systemic lupus erythematosus and spondyloarthritis respectively, what is (i) the average and median number of outpatient visits in public hospitals per unique patient and (ii) the average and median costs of each outpatient visit in public hospitals; and (b) whether the Ministry will start collecting this data if it is not available.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multisystem autoimmune disease that has a wide range of clinical manifestations that can affect virtually any organ. Spondyloarthritis is the term for a group of diseases that causes inflammation in the spine and joints.

Data on the number of Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOC) visits, bill sizes, and out-of-pocket expenses per SOC visit in the past five years, collected from the public health institutions (PHIs), is presented in the table below: