Most public hospitals saw more A&E patients in past week than past month: MOH

[SINGAPORE] Some patients requiring admission have had to wait longer for beds, with most emergency departments (EDs) at public hospitals kept busier in the past week than the month before, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday.

The EDs are also seeing a higher number of Covid-19 cases, with more beds diverted to meet their needs, a spokesman told The Straits Times. "While the hospitals have been scaling back non-urgent surgeries and admissions, the overall hospital capacity utilisation is getting more and more tight."

Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said in a Facebook post on Sunday that while the overall intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is holding up, the Singapore healthcare system's accident and emergency (A&E) departments, as well as general wards, are "coming under pressure". "Our hospitals and healthcare workers cannot be overburdened. At this point, this is MOH's biggest challenge and we are doing our best to solve this," he added.

This is why younger, fully vaccinated people are being encouraged to recover at home, he wrote.

Mr Ong noted that more than 98 per cent of those infected between May 1 and Sept 16 had either no or mild symptoms, and tended to remain that way until recovery.

His comments came a day after MOH said some public hospitals had been experiencing a surge in patients who gone to A&E departments with mild respiratory infection symptoms. Hospitals like Singapore General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital posted online last week about the development, saying that priority would be given to the critically ill.

MOH on Saturday night urged those with mild acute respiratory infection symptoms to avoid seeking treatment in hospitals, and instead consult a general practitioner (GP) at a swab and send home (Sash) clinic. "The Sash GPs are capable of assessing the severity of their symptoms and perform Covid-19 diagnostic tests when needed to confirm their status," the ministry noted. "This allows those with more severe illnesses and who are in need of urgent care to be attended to quickly and helps to preserve hospital capacity for those who truly need hospital care."

As at Sunday, 873 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, with 118 requiring oxygen supplementation and 21 in ICU.

THE STRAITS TIMES