SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Sunday (Feb 6) that hospital emergency departments are currently seeing a large number of patients, resulting in long queues and waiting times.
Most of these patients do not need urgent care, the ministry said, adding that such unnecessary emergency visits could affect the standard of care for other patients who do need urgent medical care.
The Ministry of Health advises the public to seek medical attention in hospital emergency departments only for severe or life-threatening emergencies such as chest pain, difficulty breathing and uncontrollable bleeding.
“This enables those seriously ill who need urgent care to be treated quickly. It also helps preserve our hospital capacity for those who really need urgent hospital care,” the ministry added.
Attendance at the Children’s Emergency Department at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and National University Hospital has been very high over the past two weeks.
The two children’s emergency departments have averaged more than 650 cases a day this week, up from an average of 450 cases a day in early January, the ministry said.
About 80 percent of patients, including those infected with COVID-19, had mild symptoms, did not require hospitalization, and were discharged from the emergency department.
“Among the pediatric patients admitted to the hospital, most of the hospital stays are not long, and they are discharged within two to three days on average. The proportion of children with severe COVID-19 infection and multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) is still very low, less than 10,000 one of the pediatric cases,” the ministry said.
“We urge the public, including children, to see their GP or a non-emergency 24-hour clinic.”
If an individual requires testing for COVID-19 or checking for symptoms of acute respiratory infection, they can visit the Public Health Preparedness Clinic (PHPC) for further evaluation. More than 700 such clinics are open after office hours on specific days, the ministry said.
There are also six paediatric swab centres that support paediatric swabs for children six and younger, four of which are open after office hours on select days.
They are: 24 Hour Family Clinic at Thomson Medical Centre, Raffles Specialists at Raffles Holland V, Raffles Children’s Centre at Tampines One, Raffles Youth Centre at Waterway Point and JEM and Serangoon The Center’s Thomson Pediatric Center.
Children aged five and older can also have swabs done at an urgent care centre (Woodlands Health).
An up-to-date list of GP clinics and their hours of operation can be found on the Ministry of Health website, the Integrated Care Facility (AIC) website, the Community Health Assistance Scheme (CHAS) webpage and the HealthHub mobile app.
