Home recovery frustrations due to hiccups in 'processes': Ong Ye Kung

FRUSTRATIONS experienced by Covid-19 patients and their families as they tried to make sense of the home recovery care management model were not because of a lack of capacity, but due to hiccups in "processes" said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Monday.

"(When the Delta variant came in), and cases started to shoot up... fortunately we have always been planning ahead, which is why, at that point in time, we were already ready to handle 1,500 cases a day," said Mr Ong.

The healthcare system currently has the capacity to handle 3,000 cases a day. In one to two weeks, it will be able to handle 5,000 cases. At this point, the ministry is already thinking about the next step - how to handle 10,000 cases, he said.

"So in terms of planning capacity (and) manpower, we're always one to two steps ahead. What I think did not go well, and I fully acknowledge it, was the HRP (Home Recovery Programme). All the complaints about conveyancing, calling in and people not getting responses, is not because the beds were totally full, but processes with regard to the HRP were not totally ready and we were caught by the sudden increase. We were still implementing a pilot programme when all this happened."

In his earlier speech, Mr Ong said there are about 9,800 people on HRP. Over 2,800 were discharged as at Sunday.

"Every day, over half of infected individuals will be onboarded on HRP and we expect the proportion to continue to rise. In recent days, for those eligible for HRP, 93 per cent were contacted promptly and smoothly onboarded," he said.

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Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary noted that the exponential rise in cases has impacted Singapore's healthcare capacity.

Around 15 per cent of hospital beds in the acute public hospitals are used for around 10 per cent of Covid-19 cases.

Those who require oxygen supplementation or ICU (intensive care unit) care account for 2 per cent of total cases. In the last three months, ICU bed occupancy has increased from 26 per cent to 53 per cent and the occupancy of isolation beds has risen from 58 per cent to 86 per cent. Occupancy in community care facilities has gone up from 10 per cent to 35 per cent.

He further noted that public hospital emergency departments have seen up to an eight-fold increase in the number of patients who have positive results using ART (antigen rapid test) or PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests.

"We are closely monitoring the ICU trends in particular," he said. "We have increased the ICU bed capacity by 74 beds for a total of 187 beds dedicated to Covid-19 patients with severe conditions. More ICU beds can be opened on short notice, if needed."

He added that the government is closely monitoring the hospital manpower situation, given that close to 400 healthcare workers have tested positive for Covid-19. Hospitals will continue to cross deploy resources, he said, adding that they are working with private healthcare providers to augment their manpower.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has also set up a dedicated fleet of 95 additional ambulances to convey Covid-19 patients to the different healthcare facilities.

Asked by Member of Parliament Jessica Tan if current measures are effective in ensuring that Singapore is prepared for Covid-19 to be treated as "endemic", Mr Ong said that Singapore's transition journey to living with Covid is "unique", and that Singapore did not see large transmission numbers last year, a situation faced by many countries.

"Today, when we see other countries opening up and living life almost normally, let's not forget the heavy price that they paid last year," said Mr Ong. "We commenced our transition journey only after we have vaccinated the large majority of our population so that for the vast majority of infected persons now have no or mild symptoms. I believe our plan is as comprehensive and as effective as it can be given what we know about the virus, and the tools we have on hand. But we continue to learn about the virus, and improve our responses, day by day, week by week."

Separately, Mr Ong also gave an update on booster shots. About 550,000 individuals have been invited to take their boosters. Of this, 350,000 have taken their jabs or booked an appointment as at before the weekend and 240,000 have completed their jabs.

"The expert committee has recommended and MOH has accepted, that individuals eligible for boosters will include those aged 50 and above, and all those who are immunocompromised. The expert committee continues to review international data to assess the efficacy and safety of booster shots for younger groups, as well as those exposed to high risk environments, such as healthcare workers and frontline workers," he added.