Thoughts on Singapore's private healthcare

[cuddlelooker]

Hello friends,

I'm trying to find out more about the thoughts of people here in SG about our private healthcare system. In the past few years, there have been lots of press, for example about Susan Lim, the surgeon who infamously over-charged the Brunei royal family for her services.

Do you think our private specialists are transparent with their prices and services?

Gary

[sundaymorningstaple]

Are you from TRE, TRS or TOC? Or are you from the local birdcage liner or Today, The New Paper? Sounds and smells like a journalist too lazy to their own research. Go stand out by the MRT entrance/exit at Raffles Place tomorrow at lunch time and do all the interviews you need. Put some of your own effort into it.

[cuddlelooker]

Hello there,

Maybe I wasn't clear with my intensions.

I think there are issues with the private healthcare system here in Singapore, and I'm trying to find out if anyone else in the expat community share the same sentiments or have similar problems. I'm not a journalist (thought sometimes I do wonder I could have become one) and am not affiliated with any news organizations.

If there is a real issue, I'm looking to try to solve (or get around) these problems using technology.

If I'm the only one who sees this an issue and everyone else doesn't, then maybe i'm just misguided

So i'm trying to get opinions and feedback from all different parts of the community. If anyone has views on this topis and are keen to share their thought, do get back to me.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Do you think our private specialists are transparent with their prices and services?

Compared to what?

[cuddlelooker]

To elaborate further,

Some problems that I see.
1. lack of transparency - for example, it's not easy to obtain information on costs of treatment by various doctors, even for simple procedures. And you won't really know until you actually go down to the clinic.

2. wide disparity of pricing - for example, doctor A can charge $2000 for a procedure, while doctor B charges $1000 for the exact same procedure. The differences in price can be due to differences in experience, service etc, but the consumer should know what he's paying for

3. difficult to obtain information - for example, how do I know if my specialist doctor has significant experience in this area of treatment? Nowadays, medicine is sub-specialised, so say a surgeon who's an expert in gastric surgery may not be so experienced in liver surgery, although they are all under the same specialty of general surgery.


What do you think?

[sundaymorningstaple]

So, what you are saying is you want some overseeing body to grade the doctors like cuts of beef. Grading the A, AA, AAA, or stew meat only or only fit for dog food? Ever hear of forums? Great places to inquire about reputations provide you are on the right forum. Medical Reviews? Lot's online if one but takes the time to do a little research. Just put the various doctors in the search engine and read what is spit out. Assemble your data and make a semi-informed judgement. Same thing you do in any other country.

[taxico]

To elaborate further,

Some problems that I see.
1. lack of transparency - for example, it's not easy to obtain information on costs of treatment by various doctors, even for simple procedures. And you won't really know until you actually go down to the clinic.

2. wide disparity of pricing - for example, doctor A can charge $2000 for a procedure, while doctor B charges $1000 for the exact same procedure. The differences in price can be due to differences in experience, service etc, but the consumer should know what he's paying for

3. difficult to obtain information - for example, how do I know if my specialist doctor has significant experience in this area of treatment? Nowadays, medicine is sub-specialised, so say a surgeon who's an expert in gastric surgery may not be so experienced in liver surgery, although they are all under the same specialty of general surgery.

What do you think?

singaporeans generally do and go as they are told.

how many people do you know that actually verify a doctor's qualifications or perhaps even ask about fees before seeing him/her in the consult room? almost none. it's just the culture here. they don't question "prescribed" items either.

singaporeans also equate "paying more" with having seen a "better" doctor - whatever that means.

if SMC and SMA can't make doctors change their ways, whatever app or site you have in your mind surely won't be able to do it either.

sad to say but most doctors are in it to milk as much out of a patient as possible as they have seemingly forgotten/ignored everything they said during med school interviews.

taxico (SMA member but not a singapore med school grad - thank god!)

[imogenben]

Hi cuddlelooker, I think technology has not been working well in this area. There are websites like Docdoc and 65doctor etc trying to come up with reviews and grading systems but none of them are really working.

In fact, I believe they work *against* us the patients because doctors who are being promoted aggressively on these sites are the very ones who are willing to pay for the advertising. Off hand, I can think of a few including one orthopedic surgeon who was in the news for charging $1000 for just a medical report.

[aster]

Some problems that I see.
1. lack of transparency - for example, it's not easy to obtain information on costs of treatment by various doctors, even for simple procedures. And you won't really know until you actually go down to the clinic.

It's not even just doctors but entire hospitals playing funny games when it comes to billing. Got charged some big, fat amount once on my CC and although things ended sooner they made sure I never saw a penny back. All sorts of misc. tests and charges were chucked in at the last minute to make sure they kept whatever they blocked on the CC in the first place.

The insurer reimbursed me in full but this is still a funny business over here. No different from some of those infamous & unscrupulous seafood places...