After 10 years, CGH ups A&E fee
By Tan Hui Leng, TODAY | Posted: 10 July 2007 1241 hrs
SINGAPORE - Ten years after it last revised its Accident and
Emergency (A&E) charges, Changi General Hospital (CGH) has
become the latest public hospital to up such fees.
Following in the wake of earlier hikes by the National University
Hospital and Alexandra Hospital, CGH this month increased its
A&E attendance fee by $10 or 15 per cent to $75. Even so,
the hospitals A&E charges are one of the lowest across public
hospitals, said a spokesperson.
CGH also raised inpatient fees for the first time in seven years.
For the B2 and C-class wards, the daily treatment fee went up by
$1, representing a 6-to-10-per-cent increment.
The daily ward charge for B2 wards also rose by $1, or 2 per cent.
Despite the coincidence of the timing, the hikes are not tied to
the Goods and Services Tax (GST) increase that kicked in this
month. The reason is rising operating costs, said the
hospital.
On the other side of the island, the National University Hospital
(NUH), too, recently raised some of its fees, attributing the need
to increased operating costs.
From May 14, NUH increased ward charges for B2 and C-class wards by
$2, increases of 4 and 8 per cent. The hospitals last revision for
both ward class charges was more than 10 years ago.
Both hospitals say GST will be continued to be absorbed for
subsidised patients.
But the chairman of the
Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, Mdm Halimah Yacob,
when contacted by TODAY, said: Operational costs is a very broad
term what does it really include?
Since late last year, public healthcare costs have been on the rise
with various fee increases in hospital specialist outpatient
clinics, polyclinics and inpatient wards.
From April, the Singapore General Hospital started charging $3 more
for patients in class-B2 wards. C-class patients now pay $26 a day,
up $1. Those were its first increases since 1993.
At NUH, the A&E fee was raised from $70 to $80 in January, its
first such hike since 1997.
Over at Alexandra Hospital, A&E charges went up from $55 to $60
late last year, as did C-class ward charges from $21 to $23 and
subsidised specialist outpatient clinic consultation rates, from
$18 to $20.
KK Womens and Childrens Hospital hiked ward treatment fees in
February.
Hospitals can do better when it comes to being transparent about
why they are charging more for various services, said Mdm
Halimah.
The most important thing is for hospitals to explain to the public
why they are increasing fees, even if they are not passing on the
2-per-cent increase in GST to patients, she said.
I think one would be staff cost which over the years has been
going up ... hospitals have to think of ways to control costs and
enhance efficiency and productivity. And they should explain what
they have done in this regard.
CGHs spokesperson said the hospital was prudent in maintaining
costs and has also been adopting many cost-saving measures, such
as those aimed at reducing energy and water consumption, and group
purchase of equipment and drugs with SingHealth. This has helped
us to hold off fee increases for several years, said the
spokesperson.
Mdm Halimah said that while inpatient increments at CGH and NUH are
marginal, she has received numerous pieces of feedback that A&E
charges are, in general, too high and were so even before the
hikes.
That increase will have more impact especially on Sundays and
public holidays when polyclinics and many general practitioners
do not open so that is one point one has to bear in mind, she
said. - TODAY/fa
a very simple excuse that 10 years never raise price and
"increased overheads " to raise charges. even "they" themselves
couldn't agree with these excuses.
