NMP Dr Tan YS: Opening speech for Healthcare motion 09/05/23
Delivered on 9 May 2023. PLEASE CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Madam, I beg to move, "That this House commits to supporting healthcare beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and the whole-of-Government efforts for consistent and sustainable support".
I declare my interests as a breast surgeon in private practice and my various medical leadership roles as an appointed member of the Singapore Medical Council and the Vice President of the Singapore Medical Association. More importantly, I speak as a daughter to elderly parents and parents-in-law and as a mother to children with medical conditions. Allow me to say a few words in Mandarin.
有句话 说“医者父母心”- 意思就是 “医生 该有 为人 父母之心”,
医生 对 病人 有一种 很牵挂,很担心 的心态,就如 父母 对孩子 的心态 一样。
医生 应该一辈子 带着 这种心态,可惜的是,病人 未必愿意 一辈子 当他的小孩。 孩子小时,不懂事。凡事 都会听 父母 的 吩咐。
当孩子 慢慢 的成长,开始 叛逆,便会 开始反抗 家长的 “指示”
三十年前,一般 的病入 都会聆听 医生的话,但现在,由于 科技发达, 容易 获取 信息,越来 越多 病入,
也会 质疑 医生 的诊断 或指示,甚至 给予“挑战”。
Why does anyone stand up to advocate for certain causes? We want to leave behind a better world than what we were born in.
I advocate for the doctor-patient relationship. As a patient, I want my doctor to look after my best interests and not be worried about being complained or sued unfairly. As a doctor, I want to focus on my patient's medical conditions, her needs and wants.
But life is more complicated than that. So many other factors influence this relationship – different kinds of health-seeking behaviours, different health beliefs, financing models, expectations of outcomes, customer service, social media marketing, business entities seeking to profit in the healthcare sector.
Why am I pushing for a whole-of-Government effort? Healthcare spending is the second highest in the national budget. The emphasis on building more hospitals, polyclinics, Healthier SG and recruiting staff – this cannot go on indefinitely.
While the current hot news is about the Cancer Drug List, I share a list of sobering health statistics: yearly, 26% of deaths are due to cancer; yearly, 20% of deaths are due to pneumonia; every day, 20 people die from heart attacks or strokes; every day, four people undergo leg amputations due to diabetes; Singapore ranks first in the world for diabetes- induced kidney failure; one in 10 people over 60 years old have dementia; one in 10 people have a mental illness; one third of post-menopausal women have osteoporosis – and if they ever have a hip fracture, one in five will die within the year.
These are some well-known facts in our medical community. Health news magazines frequently report these. But people do not care until it happens to them. Most people have a healthcare encounter only when they are sick and that is too late.
Humans have short memories. That is why the institution has to remember and pass on the teaching.
It feels like the whole country, even the whole world, has moved on after COVID-19. But if you look back at the history of pandemics, the next one will be here – maybe in 10 years, maybe in five. We need to be ready for the next pandemic, for the silver tsunami, for the mental health crisis. Healthcare must be a global, national whole-of-Government effort and not only a Ministry of Health (MOH) effort.
I urge for all of you to adopt a mindset change. I urge every Ministry, every Government official, every public servant – in fact, anyone listening right now – to think in terms of how to better teach our people to look after their health and prevent illness.
Next, support for healthcare workers – what does it mean? It cannot be just a one-time snapshot, a once-off wellness event, a thank you campaign, a medal. Regular salary revisions to match inflation and the rising cost of living are essential. But beyond that, support for healthcare workers should be a deeply rooted respect and acknowledgement of the nature of our work.
Many of us see our work as a calling. We commit to looking after patients. It is more than just a job. Much like our armed forces who protect our nation, healthcare workers protect the health and wellbeing of our people. It is not just business transactions selling remedies.
What kind of support do healthcare workers want then? Back to my analogy about the parent-child relationship. I hope the doctor-patient relationship will be mutually loving and respectful. We cannot be just using that one day of Father's or Mother's Day to love our parents, right? It should be an ongoing process. Take into account what we say. Listen and involve us in decision-making.
I have explained why we need to support healthcare beyond the pandemic and why we need a whole-of-Government effort. I will now share three broad strategies on how this can be done: one, identify and acknowledge problems; two, education at all levels; and three, cross-collaboration.
Let me tell you a funny story. More than a decade ago, as a junior doctor, I remember there was one day when there was a mini commotion in the operating theatre. We were told to recall our chits so that the queue of patients waiting for surgery is cleared up. I demanded to know why and I was told, "Minister is visiting."
I remember being indignant and told the sister-in-charge, "Let him see. Let him see how swamped we are." Of course, I was chased away while the welcoming party walked him around. I was an angry young doctor but I resolved to learn to be a better advocate for change.
Leaders need to walk the ground and healthcare workers need to learn to speak up better for ourselves. Maybe it is not in our nature to ever admit defeat or ask for help, because it implies weakness and we are determined to stay strong for our patients. Maybe that is why so many of us work until breaking point.
In the past two years, mainstream news and social media gave much attention to bed shortages, long working hours of junior doctors and nurses, bullying and harassment, but I tell you this is nothing new to us.
Corridor beds, lodgers in tentage, conversion of day surgery beds to acute care beds. Another story – once, when I was on call, I was called by my head of department in the middle of the night to urgently identify patients who may be fit for discharged in the morning because there were 50-over patients waiting for a bed in the Emergency Department.
There were patients fit for discharge but the common social request was to keep the patient until the weekend, because the children cannot take leave to bring him home or to wait until the helper arrives to Singapore. So, instead of operating, I was there doing bed management and being scolded by family members for being heartless. Then, when I go down to finally attend to the new patients waiting, I get scolded for making them wait very long.
A call starts at 8 am and ends at 8 am the next day, followed by a full day's work until 6 pm the following day. We did six to eight calls a month. Eighty to 100 work week hours are not unusual. Doctors, nurses, lab technicians, couriers, healthcare attendants – everyone in the healthcare system is trying our best to meet demands; and sometimes, we cannot deliver.
How many of us have just gone to cry and hide in the toilet for a while? How many have walked away?
We have seen the ups and downs of problems in the past decades. The removal of the guideline of fees, coupled with as-charged plans, leading to escalating costs, due to multiple factors that we are still trying to address now in the Multilateral Healthcare Insurance Committee (MHIC). Changes to residency training, leading to the loss of mentorship, loss of a sense of belonging by the trainees. Shorter training periods with consequences in some specialties.
The privatisation and commercialisation of healthcare is a "necessary evil". Someone has to ensure there is money to run a sustainable business. But when healthcare workers are treated as a commodity by administrators, it is yet another bad influence on the doctor- patient relationship.
Currently, we face new concerns. In the private sector, business costs are increasing due to rental, manpower costs and pressure from business entities. Perpetual problems with poor IT systems. A brain drain of experienced nurses, allied health and even doctors.
I have previously spoken on wellness and alternative health services, which are not regulated and which sometimes do more harm than good. Poor use of Google leading to badly written SEO articles that further increases the disconnect between doctors and patients.
Some family physicians have expressed their perceived difficulties to onboard Healthier SG. Many doctors are concerned over the capitation model, about the impact of the drug whitelist and actual payments to general practitioners (GPs), which may not cover their running costs.
Now, I am not saying it is bad. I am saying doctors are worried about these changes. We have lived through changes with adverse outcomes and we feel really helpless when others dictate how we should practise medicine.
We should learn from the mistakes of the past so that we do not repeat it but humans have short memories and few people have the time or commitment to dig into history.
Political office bearers come and go, but for most doctors and nurses, we are here for a lifetime. The longest serving Minister for Health is Mr Gan Kim Yong for 10 years and for that, I thank him for the warm and supportive relationship he had with our profession, which Mr Ong Ye Kung has kindly continued – hopefully, for the future, after my speech.
There is no one who is giving the healthcare system his full attention and thought. Doctors do clinical work. Clinician scientists do research. Nurses care for patients' daily
needs. Many feel unease and unhappiness at "the system", but there is no one whose job is to really evaluate the system and improve it.
Instead, experts from other service industries are imported to provide opinions, get paid consultancy fees – and they leave. While we care so hard, so badly, that it hurts. Even with all my lobbying for the private sector, for reviews into Shield plans, corporate insurance, concierge services, third party administrators (TPAs), many have heard but might not be listening.
Sadly, even my own doctors do not pay close attention to my advocacy efforts and keep repeating the same old grouses. Some are aware but do not dare to take action. They might be afraid of losing their livelihoods if they do not play by the rules of TPAs who have come between doctors and patients. I have frequently said to my peers that it is common sense that a business should be profitable but we should never profiteer from people's suffering.
Healthcare providers are in a no-win situation – getting complaints for long waiting times in Government hospitals, getting accused of overcharging in private.
Patients have very high expectations now. We all want perfection – cheap, fast and good.
I have repeatedly vouched for our restructured hospitals. We have all trained and worked there at some point and they provide good quality care. Sometimes, the communications may not be as clear or personable, simply because it is a very large team- based practice.
I think restructured hospitals are cheap and good, and it is hard to be fast. I ask the public to be understanding. Restructured hospitals are teaching hospitals. We all start somewhere. We all learn through mentorship, by examining small lumps, do our first operations.
Patients are never used as an experiment. There is consultant lead practice and there is a specialist in charge of your medical journey. When you meet a young doctor with a heart, I hope you help the doctor to train and grow.
Some of you will choose to go private if you can afford it because you get personal service, it is generally faster, there is more privacy because it is a much smaller team attending to you. But then I ask for your understanding that every doctor runs a business and there are various models that are used with various different business costs. If you find a doctor that you trust and there is clear communication and transparency, I hope you will also give him the support he needs.
I have listed a string of perennial problems, which are complex, systemic problems and that I do not expect any one person to solve.
Stay with me as I share my views on education and cross-collaboration.
There are many ways how people learn. I think the commonest method is by frequent exposure and repetition. We eat frequently, right? Three times a day, maybe five times or
even more. Singaporeans are passionate about our food. So, if I ask about chicken rice, there will be a very hot-blooded robust debate on which store is the best, comparing roast chicken versus steam chicken, the ginger, the chilli. Enthuasists will even know the exact cost breakdown from different stores: how much you charge for extra chills, extra rice, an upgrade to thigh meat.
But how many of us need major surgery or admission for a major illness?
There are some patients with complex medical issues who have been in and out of hospitals. The healthcare team ends up knowing the patients and families very well over time. Such families will likely also be very aware of how treatment costs are like.
For most people though, the first major illness is the first time ever we have to seek medical care in the hospital. That is not a good time to find out how expensive healthcare is. One is already worried about their cancer diagnosis and the impact on survival, side effects and potential complications of treatment, responsibilities of work versus family.
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Not many people know the cost of treatments in Singapore and many are stunned when they first see the numbers. I know I was when I had to handle the bills for an open heart surgery.
Healthcare financing is very complex and there are actually many safety nets for Singaporeans – public sector versus private sector. Who pays? Taxpayers' monies, insurance pooling. Various combinations of copayments and tiers of subsidies exist. The problem is most healthy people do not bother to check these until they encounter health issues.
If it is an elective surgery, there is time for financial counselling, pre-authorisation and so on. But in an emergency, the team would deliver the necessary life-threatening treatments first. The patient and their family may be saddled with a big debt. Or the hospital writes off bad debt – not often, I believe, but I know that this happens when we have a foreign worker with no health insurance, just an accident policy and there is no or inadequate cover. Same for locals who are not familiar with the product they bought, whether it is a plan for hospitalisation, critical illness or early cancer plan. Maybe they did not know about exclusion terms or coverage limits.
I picked up this lingo and knowledge only in these recent three years and I hate it that I have to know it. It distracts from my real work in caring for patients. But it is necessary. This is what I talked about in March, for insurers to build closer working relationships with healthcare providers so that patients have more assurance of affordability.
People need to learn how to navigate our healthcare system. Some years ago, I started a blog specifically on how to enter the healthcare system, the different paths available and the pros and cons of each. But I could not maintain it. Other commitments took priority. Since then, I have seen several well written articles. There is no need to keep re-inventing the wheel. Collect these, have a good library of such articles in the central repository and let it be the main reference for all Singaporeans.
People do not actively care until it happens to them. Look at global warming, does the average person worry about global warming, even when faced with evidence of changing microclimates? Does a person worry about fertility and starting a family young, until they are actually trying and come across difficulties? I know most of my patients never worried about breast cancer until they have a symptom or heard that a friend or colleague is recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, it triggers fear and worry. People care, only when things affect them.
I want my children to grow up and take responsibility for themselves. Likewise, I believe that everyone of us can take responsibility for our own health but we need to be empowered on how to do this.
Humans are emotional creatures, but we have the capacity to think. Learning how to regulate emotions and using our brains to think is an invaluable skill that can be taught from young childhood. I know some adults who still struggle with this. I cannot underestimate the importance of having a scientific and logical framework in approach to all problems. Fear, anger, worry, joy are all emotional responses that are normal but we must learn to regulate them. Too often, I see my patients so paralysed by anxiety that it interferes with the treatment process.
Some diseases are well-studied and the progression is clearly understood, for example, Hepatitis B leads to liver cancer and Hepatitis B vaccination is effective. Some others are multifactorial, such as most cancers and cardiovascular diseases. So, just because I smoke, it does not mean I will get lung cancer for sure. Likewise, just because I do not smoke, it does
not mean that I will never get lung cancer. It is not so simple; there is no magic bullet or "免 死金牌".
Obesity, strokes, heart attacks – we call these "lifestyle diseases" because every day, we make small decisions on food and activity level that will build up to or prevent these. Some illnesses are insidious. Do we recognise mental health issues or is it unseen until there is a sentinel event with self-harm?
Preventable trauma is another huge area we can improve on. Awareness on child safety seats, road safety awareness by all users including pedestrians and cyclists, stricter regulations for driving licenses, giving way to emergency vehicles, workplace safety.
There is so much to teach, so much to learn. Education cannot be assigned to just the Ministry of Education (MOE), just as health should not be the domain of the Ministry of Health (MOH) only. I firmly believe that education starting from as young as infancy and carry on throughout our schooling and working adult years will be the key to good sustainable health. I am glad that Minister Ong stated last month that MOH will partner MOE and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) to lay a strong foundation of health for our young.
I am alarmed at how often I notice infants being spoon-fed while they are looking at an iPad. Studies have shown that screen time adversely affects brain development. Babies are not able to read faces as well and develop social skills, leading to later problems in executive and higher order functioning, such as the ability to focus, impulse control and emotional regulation. I have seen increasing numbers of young adult patients in their 20s with such problems and I am deeply concerned for the future generations.
Teaching the appropriate use of technology is not just for the young, but for the adults as well. News abound of increasingly elaborate financial scams. In relation to health, there are trends of miracle cures to fight cancer or guarantee weight loss. I have seen patients trying the black garlic diet, aloe vera, alkaline water, negative ion clothing. The list is endless.
I call this pseudoscience because there is a hint of truth in it. There is one experiment to show that the item has one property that has killed a few cancer cells in a petri dish. To me, this is like an observation that "Hey, the ant can use a leaf to float on water! Therefore, if I use a big leaf, I can use it to sail across the ocean!" I cannot professionally extrapolate such studies to claim it can cure cancer, which is what some salespeople do and vulnerable patients will try it, and sometimes forgo proven treatments.
During the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy and big pharma conspiracies had direct negative impacts on public health. Internet connectivity has brought people closer together but has also allowed misinformation to flourish. People rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, some use Google reviews and some people do not know that these can be bought or faked or that there are malicious marketing agencies who deliberately downvote rival companies.
Whose role is it then to teach people how to use Google and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool? It does not feel like it should be the Government's job. It is up to individuals then.
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn said that "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with". I use this to take stock of my personal and professional growth periodically. Whenever I feel stagnant, time to review and change a bit, step out of the comfort zone, learn something new. Do not settle in too comfortably and be trapped in an echo chamber.
Lifelong learning is a challenge. How do we then cultivate this mindset in people? This leads me to my next point: cross-collaboration.
I think the COVID-19 Multi-Ministry Task Force was a good platform for leadership to discuss and share timely information on a rapidly evolving situation and align policy direction. Of course, there were problems as it filtered down, because humans being humans, we have a wide range of responses. We had people ranging from lawful good to chaotic evil, to use a Dungeons and Dragons reference. Some followed the exact letter of the law, some followed the spirit of what is intended. Some profiteered off other's desperations and some wilfully, selfishly lived by their own rules and not respect the society they are living in.
The Government of Singapore is complex; organised into 16 Ministries, further divided into departments, divisions and more than 50 statutory boards. Do people from different Ministries talk to one another, or is there a very strict protocol of how new ideas may be raised? I ask, because previously when working within the confines of a restructured hospital as an employee, I know that there are clear hierarchical processes. And even now, I only have experience talking to certain folks within MOH.
I know there are incredibly smart and devoted people in the civil service at all levels of seniority. I know passionate and caring people who are active volunteers in various groups, charities and social enterprises. There is a flourishing ecosystem, but I wonder if perhaps there are too many small-to-medium groups. Can we pool these resources?
Every one of us may be a domain expert, but we do not know what we do not know.
From my participation in MHIC, I had the privilege of networking across different industries, to be acquainted with insurers, financial advisors, actuaries and to discuss healthcare problems from their point of view. It was humbling to realise how little of healthcare financing I knew before, as a clinician. I am yet again bringing up the story of blind men examining the elephant and everyone only touching the part they can touch and arguing about what the elephant looks like. Because it is true – we do not know what we do not know.
I now challenge you to think beyond your usual area and how you can apply your knowledge to better support healthcare, wherever you are in. You have heard the problems I brought up as a doctor, as a healthcare leader. Are you able to help me?
I respectfully share some of my ideas of how to align future policies, with the compass oriented towards healthcare. Formal workgroups seem very structured. I believe that when people with similar goals and ideas discuss casually, the mind-mapping and synergy may create something way better.
Starting from young, Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and MOE can work closely with MOH to identify key basic health messages for young Singaporeans to learn. And the challenge is not in rote learning but how to get updates on information because some scientific breakthroughs develop rapidly.
The food pyramid that I learnt in primary school is now outdated, replaced by the healthy plate model and current nutrition and fitness research is leaning towards low-carb diet with resistance training. Who knows what will future research show?
Teach children how to eat right and cultivate the habit of regular exercise to maintain a healthy weight. A lot has been done for mental health education and safe, appropriate use of social media in primary schools. These can also be adopted for adults who did not grow up in the Internet age so that they are also taught about online etiquette and safety.
Introduce and strengthen the idea of the family doctor and the importance of good primary care. Teach how to navigate the healthcare system, how to get into subsidised care and the role of different types of insurance.
MSF, in your mission to build strong families, could also collaborate with MOE and MOH to shape sex education, guide families on how to hold the tough conversations on morality, religious beliefs and identity. Ask the coaching industry, especially those who specialise in sexuality counselling.
Teach older teenagers and tertiary students about the parenthood journey, its many joys but also hardships so that in time, young couples make an informed decision about marriage and the pros and cons of having children or not, and when to have children; in their 20s, 30s or 40s.
Once we enter the workforce, we often neglect our own health to pursue a career. In work with long hours or shifts, we develop unhealthy eating habits and irregular sleeping hours, and do not know how to make time to exercise. How many adults notice weight gain and lethargy over five or 10 years' of working life? The weight creeps up on you.
Singaporean men have yearly IPPT to clear but women might not have a fitness benchmark. There is a phenomenon of being "skinny fat", where the person has a healthy weight range but has low muscle and bone mass.
I think this is where all the different Ministries can contribute to health, by continuing education on diet and exercise, screening and vaccinations as well as empowering adults.
For the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), look into how to develop healthy routines at the workplace; ask the fitness industry; make affordable healthy foods easily accessible; encourage 10 to 20 minutes of simple office or chair-based exercises; get the bosses to implement such health practices; teach workers screen time limits and the value of mental breaks; look into flexi hours so that they may prioritise time for themselves, family and medical appointments; consider incentives for good health; work with MOH, Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to look into alleged complaints of poorly paying corporate insurances and panel limitations imposed by third- party administrators (TPAs); help workers to access good quality care.
Ministries such as Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), MSF and Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) might be ideal to be the facilitators of cross- collaborations between different ministries. Good ideas, content and projects can be supported by all, rather than every Ministry trying to come up with their own independent project.
I give one example. If you Google "Singapore how to lose weight", see what comes up. Articles on HealthXchange, HealthHub, Health Promotion Board (HPB) get buried amidst advertorials from aesthetics clinics, spas and gyms. One good quality article with a good video might be shared across different Ministries and across all the various social media platforms for wider reach. Repeat the same essential health messages in each of your various networks: eat right, exercise every day, protect your mental health, whichever division you are in, for social support, for youth or for sports.
I thank the Ministry of National Development (MND) for the new SkatePark at Lakeside Garden. I hope you continue to integrate sports into the community. Are you aware that Singapore's cityscape is acknowledged as a parkour paradise internationally? But practitioners frequently get chased away by residents who think they are vandalising and that the Police are called to chase them away. I hope for stronger support for the parkour community in Singapore.
The Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE)'s mission to supply water and safe food may also extend to more affordable fresh produce, as eating whole foods has more health benefits than processed foods. Food safety labels are regulated by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), under MSE but nutrition labelling is by HPB, under MOH. I found the 64-page handbook online. I think people still buy a lot of bubble tea even when graded "C" or "D"!
What is commendable is the rise of urban farming, supported by state agencies such as the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), SFA and Animal & Veterinary Service (AVS) and Housing & Development Board (HDB). I hope I did not miss anyone out. This has benefits such as a start towards food security and the health benefits of working with nature, learning to grow and eat our own organic foods will be lasting.
IT continues to be a huge challenge in so many aspects. I said in a previous speech; electronic health records are sometimes nothing better than Microsoft Word documents or PDF documents scanned and stored online. Systems are unwieldy and not instinctive. Vital signs are still keyed in manually. My patient tried to find her operation histology from HealthHub, Healthy 365 and Health Buddy; we could not find it.
I do not know how this can be achieved, but can MCI, GovTech, IHiS - Integrated Health Information Systems (iHIS) and other IT stat boards please coordinate and get a good national system up? I envision using Singpass and Healthhub, with trigger questions to remind the individual of major health checkpoints: height and weight; health screening; vaccinations; appointments.
Medical tourism – a complex international issue. Will the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) look into how this could contribute to increasing healthcare costs locally but still help Singapore maintain a leading edge reputation as one of the best places to get good quality care? I am still deeply bothered by the businesses of medical concierges who collect fees from healthcare providers in exchange for bringing in foreigners for healthcare.
Will MTI help MOH to attract Singaporeans to take up essential jobs in healthcare? Look into the development of healthcare workers to recruit, train and retain experienced workers. Human resource management will be essential, not to manage people as commodities, but to truly build a good working relationship for them so that they feel appreciated and will stay for the long haul.
Complex medical conditions are managed by a multidisciplinary care team. I apply a similar concept to our healthcare system problem. Cross-collaborate; engage with healthcare providers; step outside of your comfort zones across different Ministries and industries.
Appropriate remuneration for consultancy work may be something to consider and in time, build up a network. I am very mindful of costs and ideally, if we can call upon volunteers, that would be great but I also realise that runs the risk of the same few big- hearted people being called upon again and again.
Set up a think tank whom all the Ministries can have access to and call up on for brief consultations on global issues, not ad hoc requests to organisations.
As I end, let me recap. I have explained why healthcare should be a whole-of- Government concern and not just MOH. I have listed chronic problems in healthcare. I emphasised the need for education at multiple levels of engagement and I asked for everyone to cross-collaborate.
My old friend told me, "Don't pretend you want people to be healthy. You docs want more patients, right? Got business!"
No! Ideally, I want to look after patients who become sick despite their best efforts, not those who have neglected themselves through lack of knowledge, lack of resources or lack of self-care. Let us work together to bring down the number of preventable illnesses. That is the real cost savings. It is our individual responsibility to keep as fit and healthy as we can. Be educated and keep up-to-date.
As a society, to be kind and civic-minded. For those who hoarded medical supplies and tried to profiteer during COVID-19, shame on you! As a doctor, I look after all patients equally. But when ICU beds are full, who deserves it?
The pandemic has made everyone acutely aware of limited resources – masks, ART kits, oxygen. That is the real fact of life. There are limited resources and who will be the gatekeeper as to who needs it most?
Healthcare workers need the Government to help shape these policies. We need everyone to prioritise health. Do not force us to have to have to triage and decide who to save. I look forward to a robust debate.
Breast Surgeon👩🏻⚕️ SMA, SMC. Nominated MP 2021-2023. Advocates women’s health & wellness 🌈
1yDaniel Yeo Adrian Tan For your reading pleasure and sharing as needed, thank you!