by Wee Lee Sum
I believe most of the affected should have been informed by SingHealth of the severe breach in the confidentiality of their medical records, in the same manner, they handled the notorious Hepatitis C outbreak following the conclusion of GE 2015.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as I discovered after patronizing a polyclinic which used to be affiliated with SingHealth before they were transferred to National Healthcare Group early this year. Their systems were also nevertheless, compromised and they informed me verbally in person in a bid to contain the fallout of confidence in the healthcare system to safeguard our data.
This led me to wonder the purpose for there to be so many healthcare clusters, each possessing different operating procedures and charges which approval of MediFund assistance in 1 institution will not be able to utilise in another? Is this the efficiency ever so often touted by Ministry of Health which dumps portions of taxpayer dollars every year to upkeep and maintain these public clusters, when the needy has to go through means test over and over again to reproduce the same old documents from 1 cluster to the other?
We will of course, never be able to obtain an answer to this and several other burning questions we may have as such are decided by the scholars sitting in their respective ivory towers. Some may even be the very same ones appointed to the Committee of Inquiry: How independent are the committee members in the COI for the SingHealth cyber attack?
We should begin instituting a system where appointments to the various key positions such as Permanent Secretaries, CEOs of Statutory Boards, Chief Justice/Judges of Appeal and the Heads of State Organs be vetted by Parliament for their suitability instead of a blanket endorsement by the reserved President on the advise of the Prime Minister who himself, is the curious case of interest in the wake of the 38 Oxley Rd saga.
Take for example, PSC Commissioner Eddie Teo who is retiring later this month and will be replaced by Mr Lee Tzu Yang of Esplanade who is also in the Council of Presidential Advisers since 2013. Why are the other 2 Deputy Commissioners bypassed for the succession when they have been serving much longer than Mr Lee who was parachuted in on 2 May 2018? What guarantees do the people have that Mr Lee will be objective and independent when complaints on say Perm Secs or Judges be lodged to his Commission?
#waitingforge2020
