Public Education on Proper Use of Hospital A&E Departments and Respective Fees Charged, and Promotion of Remote Care

4 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health to reduce overcrowding at accident and emergency (A&E) departments in the public hospitals (a) whether the Ministry will implement initiatives to improve health literacy and public understanding of common medical condition and proper emergency care procedures; (b) how is the Ministry raising public awareness about A&E and GP fees, and subsidy programmes like GPFirst; and (c) how is the Ministry planning to incorporate more remote care and triaging at the A&E departments.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, we agree with the Member and will continue to educate members of public on the proper use of Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments.

With the implementation of Healthier SG, all 1,000 Healthier SG GP clinics are on board the GPFirst programme. We have also set up an Urgent Care Centre in the north, to ease the A&E cases at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. Our hospitals are encouraging the greater use of telemedicine, including a helpline to advise people where to seek treatment. All these initiatives are ongoing, as we continue to manage rising case loads as a result of frequent outbreak of infectious diseases and an ageing population.

Mr Speaker: Mr Yip.

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Senior Minister of State for his reply. Can he elaborate on how have urgent care clinics like those in Admiralty and Alexandra Hospital, as well as the GPFirst programme help to take the load off A&Es? Will the Ministry plan to introduce more urgent care clinics to reduce the load of A&Es?

Second, in terms of implementation, will health literacy programmes be targeted towards specific demographics or communities with higher A&E utilisation rates? The Ministry can then measure the effectiveness of these initiatives in reducing unnecessary A&E attendances.

Dr Janil Puthucheary: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for his questions. I would take his second one first. The issues do with health literacy and the public education that is received as a result do not only result in a change in behaviour for health-seeking at an A&E department. These are public health messages that are useful for the public in general to understand about their own health, the health of their loved ones, the health of their family and where and how they can access medical help. We will continue to do so, but I am not sure that I quite agree with the very tight link that the Member has put out in his question. It is worth doing, but perhaps, we measure its effectiveness in a different way.

As far as urgent care centres are concerned, I thank him for the question. We are piloting the urgent care centre at Admiralty. It is opened daily, including public holidays from 8.00 am to 11.00 pm. There is another urgent care centre at National University Hospital (NUH) Children's Urgent Care Clinic @ Bukit Panjang for the paediatric population, opened daily from 2.00 pm to 10.00 pm. At Admiralty, they have seen over 16,000 patients in 2022; and at the NUH clinic, 21,900 patients in 2022.

Other than the usual conditions that primary care physicians will be managing, the urgent care centres can also perform simple blood tests and X-rays onsite and provide services that you do not usually see at most general practitioners (GPs) such plaster casts for minor fractures and sometimes, intravenous fluids for short periods with observation.