PCPS will assist needy patients, especially those with chronic conditions

22 Sep 2011, Today

How much will the PCPS changes help?

The Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS) will be enhanced from next year, but I wonder if it will be of little help to the needy, who cannot afford private healthcare even with the subsidy.

According to the Health Ministry's website, PCPS general practitioners and dentists will charge "reasonable fees", and after subtracting the subsidy, "there would typically be a remaining amount" that PCPS patients need to pay. The subsidy ranges from S$18.50 per visit for common treatments to S$240 or S$360 a year for chronic illness (S$320 or S$480 after the revisions).
With the Government setting aside S$73 million in subsidies for medication and for subsidised care at GP and dental clinics, does it mean the average subsidy per patient per year will be only S$103, with 710,000 people eligible for PCPS?

Also, as the previous annual subsidy amount of S$2.5 million was spent on 31,000 people who signed up (out of 87,000 who qualified), does it mean the average subsidy per person was only about S$81?

What we really need are more polyclinics which charge low fees instead of more people being eligible for PCPS but paying more at the private clinics.

Leong Sze Hian

Reply From MOH

In the letter "How much will the PCPS changes help?" (Sept 16), Mr Leong Sze Hian asked if the enhanced Primary Care Partnership Scheme could really help the needy and suggested that more polyclinics would benefit more people instead. We thank him for his feedback.

In his letter, a subsidy amount was derived by dividing the total subsidy amount with the eligible population.
Such a figure does not reflect the true amount of subsidies patients get, especially those who see their doctors with a combination of acute and chronic conditions.

Under the enhanced Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS) announced last month, an eligible patient who visits a general practitioner (GP) four to six times a year for chronic disease management would be subsidised up to S$320 or S$480. Patients also get subsidies for visiting their GP for acute conditions. Some patients choose to have a mix of care by visiting GPs and polyclinics, adding to the total amount of subsidies received.
The primary purpose of PCPS is to enable eligible Singaporeans to seek GP care at more affordable prices and is not meant to replace the role of polyclinics.

The scheme will allow more Singaporeans to be eligible for assistance, as the age and income criteria have been expanded. With more eligible patients, GPs are able to play a bigger role in primary care, especially in managing chronic diseases. The Ministry of Health continues to review and evolve the role of our polyclinics to ensure that their care models remain in tandem with the needs of the population.

We recognise that our polyclinics alone cannot meet the needs of the ageing population and the growing burden of chronic disease. We are currently engaging the GP community to find ways to work together to provide Singaporeans with quality primary care services.

We are studying the possibility of replicating services found at polyclinics in a GP setting with a one-stop chronic disease management centre.

MOH welcomes suggestions and ideas from the public in this area.