Measures to Optimise Outpatient Appointments and Unified Appointment Tracking System for Polyclinics and Restructured Hospitals

18 Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will study the implementation of a unified appointment tracking system for polyclinics and restructured hospitals to facilitate appointment rationalisation and reconciliation.

19 Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry studies the median and 90th percentile number of outpatient appointments per patient, stratified by age; (b) what measures are in place to optimise the number of outpatient appointments as part of holistic healthcare; and (c) whether elderly patients with multiple outpatient appointments can have them converged on the same days where possible to reduce caregiver stress and repeat blood tests.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Mr Chee Hong Tat) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 18 and 19 together?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Mr Chee Hong Tat: Singaporeans have access to outpatient services at different institutions, including polyclinics, national centres and hospitals within our public healthcare system. The Ministry of Health (MOH) does not have data on the median and 90th percentile number of outpatient appointments per patient stratified by age. There are patients, including the elderly, with multiple medical conditions who make multiple visits to more than one institution over a period of time.

Our public healthcare institutions have put in place systems to allow patients to schedule their outpatient appointments together where possible because we understand this will be more convenient for patients. For example, patients can do their blood tests and X-rays during the same visit.

Our hospitals have also started to consolidate Specialist Outpatient Clinic appointments from different specialties so that patients need to make fewer visits. At Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the National University Hospital, for example, some patients have their care consolidated under one doctor. At the Singapore General Hospital, diabetic patients visiting the Diabetes and Metabolic Centre can make appointments for related specialties and services, such as podiatry, eye, orthopaedic surgery, on the same day. As I have mentioned earlier, this is with the intent of bringing about greater convenience and better care for our patients.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I agree with Dr Tan Wu Meng that more unified or harmonised appointment systems will benefit patients. We will be piloting more of such systems across institutions within our healthcare clusters to facilitate better appointment, rationalisation and reconciliation. MOH will also study the next step of harmonising appointments across our three healthcare clusters.

Mr Speaker: Dr Tan Wu Meng.

Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong): I thank the Senior Minister of State for his answer. If I may also ask: will the Ministry explore involving our primary care practitioners in the community as well? So, the Family Medicine physicians, the general practitioners, the intermediate and long-term care sector as well as the nursing homes, as part of this data sharing, so that all stakeholders can have a better overview of each patient's journey so that caregivers and patients can have a smoother, more seamless experience.

Mr Chee Hong Tat: Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank Dr Tan Wu Meng for his supplementary question. Indeed, the services that we provide across the different parts of the healthcare system are something that we need to better coordinate from a cluster point of view. We have what we call Regional Health Systems which start from even before primary care. It starts from health promotion and keeping people healthy. So, that is right at the beginning, upstream. Primary care, the acute care in hospital, the step-down care, community hospitals, home care, community care, long-term care, so, that whole spectrum is coordinated through our Regional Health Systems and now we have three clusters. That is why I mentioned earlier that we will work through our clusters to reach out to not just the public healthcare institutions, but also our partners in the private sector and in the community.