Number of Clinics Offering Swab-and-Send-Home Service in Each Residential Area
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the service planning and distribution of Swab-and-Send-Home (SASH) clinics across residential areas, specifically regarding ratios for estates with many senior and low-income residents. Mr Yip Hon Weng inquired about the Ministry’s strategies to encourage higher clinic participation in areas projected to require more testing utilization. Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung highlighted that over 900 Public Health Preparedness Clinics currently offer PCR and ART tests islandwide, averaging around 20 clinics within each town. He further explained that accessibility is enhanced by 224 Quick Test Centres, 11 Combined Test Centres, all polyclinics, and more than 20 home care providers for home-bound clients. The Ministry continues to monitor the evolving pandemic situation to ensure testing resources remain available and accessible through both private clinics and dedicated government facilities.
Transcript
40 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry conducts service planning to determine the number of clinics that offer Swab and Send Home (SASH) service for each residential area; (b) whether the ratio is different for estates with a high concentration of senior residents and low-income residents and, if so, how is the ratio different; and (c) what is the Ministry’s approach to encourage higher SASH sign-up rates by clinics in areas that are projected to require more SASH utilisation.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: To manage the COVID-19 pandemic, we encourage all clinics to join the Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPC) scheme and the Swab-and-Send-Home (SASH) programme. The Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) also reaches out to support clinics with onboarding. However, there are some clinics that are not suitable to be on the SASH programme due to factors such as infrastructural and/or manpower constraints, for example, need for dedicated swabbing area.
MOH and AIC have engaged and onboarded over 900 PHPCs that offer Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) swabs and/or Antigen Rapid Tests (ART). These PHPCs are located islandwide, with an average of around 20 such clinics within each town.
To further enhance the accessibility of these tests in the community, MOH has also introduced COVID-19 testing facilities for various test purposes, including 224 Quick Test Centres (QTCs) providing ART and 11 Combined Test Centres (CTC) providing ART and PCR. In addition, all polyclinics provide COVID-19 PCR and ART swab tests for their patients. For home-bound clients, there are also more than 20 home care providers that can provide PCR tests if they require such tests.
As the COVID-19 situation evolves, MOH will continue to work closely with the COVID-19 testing providers to ensure that the necessary testing resources are in place and accessible to all.