What are your views on the current Singapore healthcare ecosystem?

Doctor's Answers 1

This question is deep, but I’ll have a stab at it (from my limited perspective).

There are two challenges that stand out, as you’ve described:

1. There needs to be spare capacity to cope with the growing AND aging population.

Innovation certainly has a role to play, but the fruits of innovation usually take a while to realise.

Honest long-term planning for capacity, taking into account population and demographic changes is probably the key.

I also strongly feel that preventative healthcare, and increasing health literacy amongst the younger generation is the way forward to keep healthcare costs sustainable – which is why this site was set up.

Regarding capacity, the Government/MOH Holdings has been doing a great job at recruiting foreign doctors and dentists, as well as bringing back overseas trained graduates. Yet at the same time, people on the ground are facing some of the repercussions.

The increase in number of doctors in Singapore has also had an impact on training places available, with a much reduced number of consultant positions in public hospitals. I know a lot of doctors who have simply left midway through training.

From a macro perspective – I can understand the rationale behind this: Keep healthcare costs low, increase capacity, etc.

But I guess there also needs to be a balance with keeping doctors motivated – there’s certainly an air of disillusionment at the moment.

2. Medical tourism

Singapore healthcare has a strong branding, but other countries are rapidly catching up.

Malaysia, Thailand, etc. all have their own flagship hospitals that provide treatment almost on par with private care hospitals in Singapore, at lower costs.

On a regulatory level, some doctors have expressed that they are “losing out” due to strict marketing/advertising regulations.

I feel that it’s a broader issue – it will be tough to compete in the longer run with countries who are able to offer significantly cheaper treatment. This is where the innovation, as you’ve mentioned, will have to kick in. Incumbents can be rapidly toppled by hungrier and more competitive countries – just look at the difficulties SIA is facing now.

What makes us a more innovative, sustainable and affordable healthcare model looking at our existing healthcare system both public and private sectors?

I’ve always been a fan of Singapore’s co-payment scheme. This is after having worked in both the UK and Singapore, and experiencing first-hand the inefficiencies of the NHS free-for-all system. Amongst other issues, one- week waits for MRI scans were standard (at a London Trust), and doctors’ jobs involved a daily grind of ringing the radiographer to request for scans as routine.

My take, as things stand, is that we are well set up to continue providing sustainable and affordable healthcare.

Regarding innovation, the government has set up generous grants for tech/healthcare start ups. An “Uber” equivalent that perhaps addresses inefficiency by matching spare capacity with demand (or any other equivalent) will go a long way towards helping to keep Singapore on the front foot.

As you may be aware, there will be many players entering this space because Singapore is a great launchpad as a testing ground, with it’s high connectivity and mobile phone penetration rate.

I’ll be watching this space with interest.

Cheers

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