Singapore — The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Sunday (Feb 6) that Singapore hospitals are seeing a high number of patients at Emergency Departments (EDs), resulting in long queues and waiting times.
“Most of the patients at the hospitals’ EDs did not require emergency care, and such unnecessary visits to the EDs risk compromising the standard of care for other patients who genuinely require emergency medical care,” said MOH in a press statement.
The agency revealed that the Children’s Emergency (CEs) departments at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and National University Hospital had experienced very high attendances over the past two weeks.
On average, there were more than 650 cases per day across both CEs last week, up from a daily average of 450 cases in early January.
According to MOH, about 80 per cent of the patients, including those with Covid-19 infections, presented with mild symptoms, did not require hospitalisation and were discharged after their ED visit.
Amongst paediatric patients admitted to the hospital, most were not warded long and discharged on average within two to three days later.
MOH noted that the proportion of severe Covid-19 infections and Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) remain low, at less than one out of 1,000 paediatric cases.
“We advise the public to seek medical treatment at a hospital’s ED only for serious or life-threatening emergencies, such as chest pain, breathlessness and uncontrollable bleeding,” said MOH.
“This allows those with severe illness in need of emergency care to be attended to quickly. It also helps to preserve our hospital capacity for those who truly need acute hospital care.”
Members of the public are urged to visit their General Practitioners or a 24-hour clinic for non-emergencies.
Those needing Covid-19 testing or a review of symptoms for acute respiratory infection can visit Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPC) for further assessment.
There are over 700 PHPCs open after office hours on selected days.
Meanwhile, six paediatric swab centres support paediatric swabs for children aged six and below. More information can be found here.
MOH reported 7,752 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, comprising 7,639 local and 113 imported infections.
The weekly infection growth rate went up from 1.44 on Saturday to 1.49.
To date, there are 1,074 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, of which 92 require oxygen supplementation and 21 in the intensive care unit.
MOH also reported three deaths, bringing the death toll from Covid-19 complications to 871. /TISG
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