Non-emergency hospital admissions

NOTICE PAPER NO. 2544
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 16 FEBRUARY 2024

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
A/Prof Jamus Jerome Lim
MP for Sengkang GRC

Question No. 5717

To ask the Minister for Health for each year over the past 10 years (a) how many cases of non-emergency and non-critical admissions to public hospitals took place; (b) how many of such cases claimed hospital stays from their MediSave or MediShield Life insurance policies; (c) how many of such patients are deemed to have “overstayed”; and (d) whether the Ministry has plans to discourage unnecessary hospitalisations by offering cash incentives for those who do not make hospitalisation insurance claims for the entire year.

Answer

1     Hospital admissions are based on clinical necessity. Some patients have medical conditions that are non-urgent and yet inpatient care is medically necessary. They account for about 20% of all public hospital admissions, which has been a stable percentage over the past 10 years. As these admissions are medically necessary, they can tap on MediSave and/or MediShield Life.  

2     Some patients stay longer in our hospitals as their homes are not ready to receive them. To minimise such over-staying in hospitals, we try our best to right price and right site patients. This includes improving and expanding our Transitional Care Facilities and home care services to provide post-discharge care. 

3     We need to be very careful about offering incentives to reward non-claims. It can discourage some, especially the lower-income, from seeking medically necessary care.