Hospitals will take months to clear backlog because of Covid
With many follow-up visits and elective operations postponed to accommodate the rising number of Covid-19 patients, it will take months for hospitals to catch up with the backlog.
Singapore's director of medical services, Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, said this yesterday during a panel discussion at this year's Singapore Health & Biomedical Congress, which is being held virtually.
Because of the surge in cases, a number of people with chronic diseases have not been able to go to hospitals for follow-up checks, he said. This was also the case last year when Singapore went into a circuit breaker period from April, when tough restrictions were in place.
"For a number of people, we have managed to mitigate concerns about not being able to come back to hospitals through the use of telehealth technologies. But that is not everyone," said Prof Mak.
"There will be a subgroup of patients who will come back with illnesses and diseases, perhaps worse off, because they have not come back to hospitals for regular follow-ups."
These patients may have skipped taking their medication or failed to refill their prescription, he said.
"There is the expectation that we will be quite busy looking after even these patients as well."
Hospitals have been busy looking after Covid-19 patients, but a number of them have outreach programmes to look after existing patients with chronic diseases, said Prof Mak.
"So, we hope that this pool of people with conditions worsening is not big, but nonetheless, catching up will take months," he said.
SURGERY
The pool includes patients requiring elective operations and those who have been waiting to return for day surgery and major surgery, he added.
"Even though we have prioritised those with urgent conditions and cancers, there are still a lot of patients who would have other conditions that require treatment in the hospital setting," said Prof Mak.
There were 1,534 patients with the virus warded here yesterday.
Professor Philip Choo, the group chief executive of the National Healthcare Group, which organised the congress, said Tan Tock Seng Hospital has seconded many staff to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
Additional manpower has also been roped in from other institutions such as the Institute of Mental Health and National Skin Centre, said Prof Choo.
"They have actually cut down their business-as- usual to quite a significant level," he added. - THE STRAITS TIMES
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