Private or public healthcare institution?
Posted: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 3:15 pm
Not sure if I am right, but I am open to new comments:
Worked in recent years in a healthcare industry. I realized one thing.
1) Healthcare industry in Singapore does not have any 'public' hospitals. They are called restructured hospitals. There operate independently from the government, just like Singtel etc. (for simplicity sake, I will use government hospitals for now)
2) Many actually says that private sector is more expensive than the government sector. However, for private patients, the consultation fee is almost the same for government and private doctors (S$150 - S$170). Besides, the waiting time for investigations, surgery etc is much faster in private sector. Thereby decreasing the time to take extra day leave etc. For example: in government sector, you might need 3 days to have an intitial consult, investigations, and a review. Another 1 week to do the operation. In the private sector, initial consult, investigations and review are normally done on the same day, at most 2 days. Surgery can be planned on the subsequent day already.
3) there are ways to minimize the cost of treatment in the private sector if we know what to request from the doctors etc. There are some smaller healthcare providers whom have marketing staffs who are very service oriented. Tell them your concerns and they might be able to help you and give you personal advice as well. However, that hardly happens in the government sector as the rules are not flexible as well.
4) Choosing the correct doctor is important. I saw many people asking who to see for a certain medical condition. instead, talk to someone who is working in the healthcare industry as many doctors are further divided in sub-specialty. For example, I saw a person referring another person to see a gynaecologist for pregnancy. Little does she knows that that doctor actually sub-specialized in surgery for cancer patients. Of course, we can make the situation better by referring the patient to another gynaecologist who sub-specializes in pregnancy or high-risk pregnancy.
Worked in recent years in a healthcare industry. I realized one thing.
1) Healthcare industry in Singapore does not have any 'public' hospitals. They are called restructured hospitals. There operate independently from the government, just like Singtel etc. (for simplicity sake, I will use government hospitals for now)
2) Many actually says that private sector is more expensive than the government sector. However, for private patients, the consultation fee is almost the same for government and private doctors (S$150 - S$170). Besides, the waiting time for investigations, surgery etc is much faster in private sector. Thereby decreasing the time to take extra day leave etc. For example: in government sector, you might need 3 days to have an intitial consult, investigations, and a review. Another 1 week to do the operation. In the private sector, initial consult, investigations and review are normally done on the same day, at most 2 days. Surgery can be planned on the subsequent day already.
3) there are ways to minimize the cost of treatment in the private sector if we know what to request from the doctors etc. There are some smaller healthcare providers whom have marketing staffs who are very service oriented. Tell them your concerns and they might be able to help you and give you personal advice as well. However, that hardly happens in the government sector as the rules are not flexible as well.
4) Choosing the correct doctor is important. I saw many people asking who to see for a certain medical condition. instead, talk to someone who is working in the healthcare industry as many doctors are further divided in sub-specialty. For example, I saw a person referring another person to see a gynaecologist for pregnancy. Little does she knows that that doctor actually sub-specialized in surgery for cancer patients. Of course, we can make the situation better by referring the patient to another gynaecologist who sub-specializes in pregnancy or high-risk pregnancy.
