Singapore could add more hospital beds amid overcapacity woes, concerns about possible Covid-19 surge
- Health minister says emergency departments have been experiencing high visit levels, and hospitals should have flexibility to optimise bed use during crunch times
- Rise in number of patients with serious medical conditions, more children contracting Covid-19 have added to ‘operational burden’ of hospitals
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on top of the goal of adding 1,900 beds over the next five years, there were short-term strategies to alleviate the stress on hospitals, such as activating more transitional care facilities and for hospitals to move away from reserving beds for Covid-19 patients.
With most of the population fully vaccinated or having already recovered from the virus, Ong said in a speech in parliament on Tuesday that the country now had “good levels of hybrid immunity against severe illnesses” and hence should consider allowing hospitals the flexibility to optimise the use of beds during a crunch situation.
However, he stressed that the pandemic was “certainly not over for our hospitals and healthcare workers”.
“Why are the hospitals still experiencing heavy workload given that life has gone back to pre-Covid? The simple and fundamental reason is that the pandemic is not over,” he said.
Some hospitals were also overwhelmed with patients seeking treatment for other viruses, Ong added.
“The emergency department (at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital) has been experiencing very high [numbers of] visits every day at levels that they used to experience only during Chinese New Year when all other clinics are closed,” Ong said. “So come Chinese New Year, I don’t know what kind of numbers they are going to get.”
He said this was due to an “immunity debt” in children, who were shielded from viruses due to safe management measures such as mask wearing, but many were contracting Covid-19 and other infections now that life had returned to normal.