No medicine why must pay?
From http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/
0,5562,381787,00.html?
SingHealth explains $4 charge
I REFER to Ms Tan Yee Nee's letter, 'Why levy fee to certify that child is free of disease?' (ST, March 30).
We would like to clarify that the $4 charged is not a levy imposed for certifying that a child is fit to return to school or to a childcare centre; it is a charge for consultation. The doctor will review the child's condition to ascertain if he has recovered fully from hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). The doctor also checks that the child does not have any other health conditions, unrelated to HFMD, so that he can be certified fit to return to school or to a childcare centre. The second consultation ensures that sick children returning to school or childcare centre are well and no longer infectious. We share Ms Tan's concern for patients from lower-income households and would like to assure her that we have a system to offer financial assistance to those in need. We welcome Ms Tan to share any other concerns she may have with us, by calling Ms Janet Lau of Corporate Communications on 6236-7531. Dr Tan Chee Beng
Chief Executive Officer
SingHealth Polyclinics
I know it's old news and we have discussed this many times. But hey these are just nice reminders.
posted by Dr Oz bloke @ 9:56 PM
30 Comments:
I've experienced that myself in SG. Pt was horrfied that she still needs to pay like $3 or 4 bucks even though i was touching her feet for like less than 10mins. CB!
I really pity the those clerks at the hospitals at times. Most patients always kaopeh the prices VS treatment to them ...
Oz, there are few private podiatrists (not locals though) around for ages! You can always refer them to the hospitals. Some polyclinics do have podiatrists too.Or else, u can ask patients wait for me till i've set up one ;p
But then you set up liao these people are giam sup want to pay you $4!
haha!
Penny wise pound foolish?
I won't be surprised she's one of those who spends a few hundred buying lottery a month but refuses to pay $4 for doctor's consultation fees!
LOL!
How can anyone whinge about $4 consult? That's ridiculous. Here the doctors charge $100 for a 5 mins consult in private practice. But if you are entitle to healthcare card (for very low income earners) consult & most treatments're free in public hospitals.
Now you know why I wished I could work in Oz?
C'mon even if tax was 50%, I would still make $50! Haha!
Of course $4 is not what the doctor keeps lah. Consult in Singapore is recommended at $18-$26 in private practice. But most clinics charge between $8-$12.
Oz, don't recommend cheapo patients to me ;)
Just to check my mum's blood pressure and a word of reassurance, I had to fork out S$25.00
A peace of mind. That is what consultation is all about.
"Now you know why I wished I could work in Oz?
C'mon even if tax was 50%, I would still make $50! Haha!"
You are talking like a bangla toilet cleaner working in Singapore.
He tells his friend back in Bangla, "do you know why I like to work in Singapore?"
"C'mon, even if my pay as a toilet cleaner is S$X, I will still make more as a doctor in Bangla!"
Frankly, your future work as a doc.in Perth making visits at unearthly hours is a job that no australian would want. I know, I live in Perth.
What's the difference between you and the bangla?
No difference between me and the bangla.
Why you racist ar?
Anyway I haven't made any decision yet. Of course the whole idea of going to a foreign country is to fill jobs that the natives DO NOT WANT.
Otherwise why would they need foreigners right?
As for the work itself, I have worked far harder before. Working from 8am to 8pm a day and covering Hotels for ad hoc housecall requests in the night for the entire week! There were times when I had no sleep and worked through the night and went straight back to work the next morning!
It's tough of course and it's Singapore. I personally think the Ozzies have good working conditions. They are damn lucky.
But I have always thought of going to Oz to work harder than the average Ozzie. You earn more after all!
Anyway it's still very early. I'm actually just waiting to see what happens step by step. One of the things I would be likely to do IF the medical board said yes, is to ask if I could then apply for a typical GP clinic job instead.
Cheers!
"Look down on toilet cleaners. Look down on bangladeshis and foreign nationals from 3rd world countries."
That's why I like living in Oz. Here nobody look down on me, even though I'm a minority. I've never had any experience with racism here. In Singapore they don't like me because I'm a Chinese but not a Singaporean Chinese.
Yes, even after paying 48.5% tax I still earn 50% more than my friend in Singapore, doing the same job, and no weekend work (she even has to work on Sunday!).
yeah it's funny right?
Chinese also look down on Chinese! But it's true. So many times I've heard people say "that chinaman" , "that malaysian chinese".
I mean that's the WORST form of racism isn't it? Crazy.
Anyway I have to live with it lah. Be thankful I'm a Chinese Singaporean and part of the majority race.
I can't imagien if I was another race and living in one of the most racist countries in the world!
Tsk tsk!
I miss Perth!! It's still one of the best place to live. I've met more rude people even staying in Sydney for just a year as compared with 5 years in Perth.
"I can't imagien if I was another race and living in one of the most racist countries in the world!"
Go forth and experience it in Sydney then you'll know how lucky you are to be living here. The grass over the other side is always greener, until you become a victim and a second class citizen unless you have the wherewithal to command their respect and even then, given grudgingly. You keep harping about how unfortunate you are to be here in Singapore. Frankly, I would say that if you go, Singapore has lost nothing. Only some taxpayers' money to fund your medical training. But hey, we have billions in reserves! We don't really mind to make a rotten bet now and then. You win some, you lose some.
Like flatfeet says, Perth is better but that doesn't mean there is no racism. If you read the papers, you'll remember that some chinese restaurants were racially vandalised recently. Singaporeans may be more articulate about their preferences as to who they want their friends or business associates to be but we NEVER, ever vandalise someone's property or resort to violence on the basis of race.
Some countries around us don't just call you names if you are not one of their own. They maim you or rape you if you happen to be "not one of them". Since you are so darn naive, why don't you spend some time staying in these places and see your wife and kids cowering in fear constantly whilst you are at work? Try it and then you'll be qualified to say how racist Singapore is!
ok lah. I have no qualifications or right to say what Singapore is and isn't lah.
Face it I'm not as lucky as flatfeet or dentist down under or you uglybaldie to have experienced life in another country as an adult.
I don't remember any racism towards me as a child in Hawaii but that's about it.
Uglybaldie,why don't you take flatfeet and dentist down under to task for saying things like Australia is the best place to live etc?
That's the thing about Singapore. You can have only good opinions and views about it. Otherwise the elite would blast you!
Anyway I'm accepting it liao lah.
Guai guai be a good Singaporean be quiet, subservient, and just think about myself enjoy life, don't think so much right?
hee hee!
"Uglybaldie,why don't you take flatfeet and dentist down under to task for saying things like Australia is the best place to live etc?"
Flatfeet didn't say Singapore is bad, only in her opinion, Australia is good. I don't wish to comment on the views of Malaysian Chinese since they are a different breed altogether from Singaporean Chinese or for that matter, Taiwan Chinese or China Chinese. The Chinese are the most liberal because they even differentiate between Chinese from different places! Flatfeet is much more balanced in her view whereas you are decidely anti singapore. Reflect on this:
If you were borne in some wretched third world, third rate banana republic, would you have the opportunity to qualify as a doc. and post little ditties on the net? I don't think so. You probably will come to us as a toilet cleaner, a maid or a hooker in Geylang. Your passport, yes, the little red book put you way above all the hopefuls from those said cesspools when it comes to emigrating to the West. So if you don't wish to be thankful, at least be not anti the country that gave you and your family a decent standard of living. Yes, there are those ingraites that live in OZ and post hogwash about Singapore. These are f##king cowards. Yet, they still do make frequent trips back here and are not affected in any way even though they could be guilty of treason.
Ok point noted.
Singaporeans should not be anti-Singapore. We should love our country. All negative sentiments are frowned upon.
Fair enough.
Cheers!
" All negative sentiments are frowned upon."
No so. But substantiate your allegations and unhappiness.
No country is perfect. The least you can do is to be more mature and taste other's pudding before you pass judgement as to why your own taste like shit!
Hey all I said was that I found comments like yours about the bangla and toilet cleaner and "chinaman" etc racist.
I mean that's just me lah. I mean I don't have experience living overseas. But to me, if I was a China National I would feel people calling me Chinaman as derogatory.
Anyway even in the hospitals there is evidence of some of these.
These are just my personal experiences lah.
I know cos I never go overseas so don't have the right to say shit in Singapore tastes like shit cos shit in Australia may taste even worse!
Sorry about that ok?
Hey uglybaldie are you in a bad mood these couple of days?
Don't bother so much about us young people lah. Go enjoy life lah.
Stock markets also doing so well lately you should go on more holidays!
"But to me, if I was a China National I would feel people calling me Chinaman as derogatory."
When you live in down under, you'll hear plenty of what you are complaining about now and some more. Yes, very much more! Also, when you're there, you'll realise soon enough that shit in singapore tastes like D24 durian ok!
Hee Hee. (by the way, OZ, "Hee Hee" is a registered trademark expression created by me ok?). Hee Hee.
How on earth can you equate an expression of banglas(oops, sorry, gentlemen of east indian origin) with toilet cleaners as racist for it is a fact that most toilet cleaners (oops, sorry, sanitation engineers) are banglas. You are also saying that an australian, associating chinese with fortune cookies is also racist?? What kind of logic is this? Sweet Jeesuz, what kind of graduates are our world class universities producing these days?
Nope, my mood cannot be better. The markets are behaving as I've predicted. Upon my advice, some of my good friends can retire without the misfortune of having to suck dicks. Instead, some slaves will be sucking their teats and dicks. The time to unload and cash in my chips is quite near. Everything is hoki doki. I'm booked for a trip to Sichuan's famed Jiu Zhai Gou and the tongkat ali seems to be working and powering up the formula 1 jack engine like crazy.
I just don't like treacherous assholes berating the country of my birth, that's all.
Hee Hee.
By the way, you may be 30+ but your mood swings and instability is that of a 60 year old. I may be so called "old" but I have a feeling that I may beat you in every department save for some quacky knowledge which Dr. Google is well placed to provide and free some more. What more can we ask for?
I'm sure you'll be very happy to be left alone to hookwink and bullshit all the gullible internetees who happen to come across your groggy blog but I'm afraid that you still have to bear with me prior to my trip.
Hee Hee.
I think it is logical to think twice before listening to someone who is of the majority race in a particular country say that their country is not racist.
Of course as a Chinese person you are more likely to think that there is little racism in Singapore. Same with a Australian caucasian talking about Australia.
Anyway peace lah.
This blog entry was about someone reminding us that they did not want to pay $4 for consultation.
You got nothing good to say about that right? Your fellow countrywoman willing to spend time to write and complain about $4 consult.
I realize there's a pattern here...
Oh well uglybaldie is uglybaldie lah.
oinkle,
The woman thought there was no consultation that's why, on a matter of principle, she wrote in to complain. It's not the amount lah, it's the principle that counts. We know now that there was indeed some sort of consultation so the 4 friggin' dollars charge was justified after all.
Don't you like staying in a country where you can even write in to complain about having to pay 4 friggin' dollars?
Try that down under and your letters may bring on a big laugh before being consigned to the trash bin. Arsies don't know a thing about a matter of principle.
LMBBO!!
Hee Hee
uglybaldie: I live down under and I've never had any derogatory racist remarks made about me and have never experience any racism here but when I was in Singapore I'd a shit load of crap thrown at me just because I'm not a Singaporean Chinese. This guy in school even came up to me and said, "I despise you because you are from XX". Talk about racism. Funny thing is, it's not even a race issue because I'm Chinese too, I just happened to be born in the Taiwan province of China.
Here ppl don't write to newspaper to complain about $4 consultation fees, because they respect the doctors and understand that the doctors need to make a living too and that it's only fair that they pay for the doctor's time. Only Singaporeans have no respect for other ppl's time.
I've been thinking this for quite a while. How can someone make singaporeans realise that any amount of time spend on the patients is considered chargable consult fees?
Unfortunately, singaporeans just want 'freebies' for themselves. Isn't that show the unslightly part of the fellow countrymen? I can easily lose my patience if patients would think I HAVE them free consults. Of course, hardly happen in Oz but to think that I may be working in Singapore sooner (or later), I need to remind myself to take deep breaths occasionally.
*sorry for some typo/grammatical mistakes...getting late over here
Dear Flatfeet,
The neighborhood GP clinics do not have the practice of itemizing the bill. All the recipt says is a sum of money paid.
Unlike those corporate clinics that itemize: consultation, medication, lab tests, x-rays, GST, etc.
I think there's also a trend in the big GP clinics to give the snr GP Drs the title in the namecard "Consultant Family Physician" or smthg.
Slowly, pple will get the idea that when u see that consultant dr, u hafta pay consult fees lorr.
... juz my humble observation :P
Oinkle,
You on strike or gone to the boondocks?
Or, in the worst case scenario, crying in a corner wondering what happpened to your application to work the graveyard shift in Arsetrailier?
Please write something leh. We are anxious to know what happened to you! And not reading your weird blog has made me fidgety the whole day! So get up on your ass, and start pounding the damn keyboard ok?
Dear pretzels, thanks for sharing your views ;) time for dinner!
uglybaldie = *ruff Ruff*
* pitter * * Patter *
good boy!
Sit! SIT!
Good boy
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