updated at http://bic-cherry.blogspot.com/
Staying together
leaving our dialysis patients behind.
Ethical?
Expensive ministerial salaries we can pay
but expensive dialysis
treatments they cannot subsidize (pushing the job to NKF)
whose
decision is it to deprive dialysis patients of the usual
subsidies?
Dialysis is a method of removing toxic substances (impurities or
wastes) from the blood when the kidneys are unable to do so.
Dialysis is most frequently used for patients who have kidney
failure,
This technique can be life saving in people with acute
or chronic kidney failure. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003421.htm
Moving ahead towards a first class living environment (see budget
2007 website)
but leaving the dialysis patients to fend for
themselves
. How unkind
Gov gives (without means testing) a 65- 80% inpatient subsidy,
(http://www.moh.gov.sg/corp/about/newsroom/pressreleases/details.do?id=42500097
)65% day surgery subsidy and 50% specialist out patient clinic
subsidy
so why cannot dialysis treatment costs be govt
subsidized?..(Cost of dialysis: http://www.nkfs.org/subsidies.php
).
Are some Singaporeans more human then others? Why the differences
in subsidies for equally life sustaining treatments?
What gives these high caliber PAP ministers the right to deprive
Singaporeans of life sustaining treatments?
GCT @ NDP rally 2000:
Suppose we find a suitable man from among the best. How do we pay
him? The top 8 bankers earned between $2.2 million and $4.5 million
each in 1998. This excludes foreign bankers and owners of banks.
The top 8 accountants earned between $2.0 million and $2.3 million.
A Minister at Staff Grade I, however, is paid about $1 million,
less than half what the 8th highest paid banker and accountant
earned. Moreover, while the Minister pays taxes like the bankers
and accountants, he does not have a corporate car and a chauffeur.
He also pays his own medical bills and hospital fees.
Should we
then settle for people of lesser calibre?,
http://www.gov.sg/nd/ND00.htm
- 12.11.05: Dr Balaji: Speech: Singapore has a high rate of kidney
failure:
http://www.moh.gov.sg/corp/about/newsroom/speeches/details.do?id=34668592
- 19.10.2001: Singapore has the world's fourth-highest rate of
diabetes,
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/life/1,8782,179116,00.html
- From 1Oct2006, patients can use their Medisave to pay for part of
their outpatient treatment for diabetes
http://www.hpb.gov.sg/health_articles/medisave_diabetes/index.htm
[help for diabetics abit too late?]
- NKF: Only about 10 cents out of every charity dollar went towards
subsidizing patients' direct treatment costs in 2003: (19.12.05:
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw05/051219re.htm
)
- NKF: patients enjoy an excellent survival rate of more than 94%
at the end of one year, one of the highest worldwide- http://www.nkfs.org/medical_programmes.php
- "...I regret making the decision because, in the end, the baby
continued to be in intensive care, and KKH now runs up a total bill
of more than $300,000..." - Lim Hng Kiang, regretting the decision
to save a baby's life because KKH ran up a $300,000 bill (Is Lim HK
a top accountant?)
http://groups.google.com.sg/group/soc.culture.singapore/msg/f4739dba35c7c6fc?dmode=source&hl=en
- http://www.gov.sg/ SG gov: Integrity, Service, Excellence, life
saving dialysis not subsidised. High calibre, no ethics.