Revenue Generated by Contracts that Referred Foreign Patients to Public Hospitals
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the impact of foreign patient referral contracts on public healthcare resources and the priority access afforded to Singaporeans. Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked about the revenue generated by these contracts and whether they compromised services for local patients. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong stated that public hospitals are not permitted to actively market to foreigners and have ceased all such contracts. He noted that referred foreign patients accounted for only 0.4% of attendances and 0.8% of revenue, ensuring no negative impact on subsidised appointment slots. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong concluded that median wait times for subsidised specialist appointments improved significantly from 2013 to 2018 as priority remains Singaporeans.
Transcript
93 Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked the Minister for Health (a) how many patients and how much revenue did the referral contracts for foreign patients bring in for the public hospitals during the life of this practice; and (b) whether this had compromised Singaporeans' priority access to public healthcare resources.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: The priority of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and public healthcare institutions (PHIs) is to serve Singaporeans' healthcare needs. Our PHIs are not allowed to actively market themselves to foreign patients. MOH has also recently asked PHIs to cease any contracts with service providers to assist foreign patients referred for medical treatment in Singapore. Today, none of our PHIs have contracts with such service providers anymore.
There are foreign patients who travel to Singapore to seek medical treatment on their own accord. Between 2013 and 2017, such patients make up about 1.5% of the total inpatient and day surgery attendances at our PHIs. Those whose referrals were supported by contracted service providers constituted about 0.4% of attendances in PHIs that had such contracts. Revenue from such patients made up 0.8% of total revenue in these PHIs.
Singaporeans remained the majority of patients treated in PHIs. Foreign patients have not impacted our PHI's delivery of services and subsidised appointment slots given to Singaporeans. In fact, the median waiting time for new subsidised specialist appointments has improved steadily from 28 days in 2013 to 22 days in the first half of 2018. MOH will continue to work with our PHIs to ensure that meeting Singaporean's healthcare needs remains our priority.