Health

Four years ago in Jan 2015 when Health Minister Gan Kim Yong introduced the MediShield Life Scheme Bill in Parliament, he said that MediShield Life would enable all Singaporeans to "come together as a nation to build this healthcare safety net, so that no one is left behind". It would extend help to the vulnerable and the needy, he said. …

The Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) has promised to review and make adjustments to its charges periodically for complex procedures, days after the media revealed that MediShield Life only paid S$4.50 for an elderly man’s S$4, 477 post-subsidy bill. The elderly, Mr Seow Ban Yam received a bill that amounted to over S$12,000 for his cataract operation on both eyes …

The administration of the ElderShield scheme will be taken over by the Government in 2021 as the Ministry of Health (MOH) reached agreement with the ElderShield insurers. In a press release on Monday (7 January), the ministry stated that the move will allow ElderShield policyholders to upgrade to CareShield Life more smoothly, and benefit from improvements to the claims assessment process …

82-year-old Seow Ban Yam was in for a shock when he discovered that MediShield Life had only paid $4.50 out of his hospital bill after an optical-related surgery last year. The Straits Times reported on Monday (31 Dec) that Mr Seow had gone to the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), which is a SingHealth cluster, to undergo cataracts removal on both …

Award-winning comic artist Sonny Liew recently expressed his confusion on his Facebook page (31 December) over how MediShield Life only paid S$4.50 for an elderly man’s S$4, 477 post-subsidy bill. Mr Liew’s post was in response to an article published by The Straits Times on how the national insurance only paid Mr Seow Ban Yam S$4.50 for his cataract operation, …

Prashant Kulkarni works as the Assistant Director of Food and Beverage at the iconic Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel the Stamford, leading a team of 750 colleagues across 15 venues. No one can imagine how this jovial and optimistic man in his forties was once on the brink of death, fighting for his life with cancer ten years ago. Prashant grew …

While the negligent administration of anaesthesia to 86-year-old Chow Fong Heng by a nurse at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) two years ago was a "gross error," it did not directly lead to the death of the elderly woman, according to Coroner Marvin Bay on Wednesday (19 Dec). The "gross error" he mentioned specifically referred to the "calculations" made by …

It is 2018 and humankind still finds itself unable to rid itself of the smoking habit it had started many centuries ago. Once the major sponsors of famous sporting events like football, smoking is now relegated to the sidelines as an unhealthy and unglamorous habit. The struggle to eliminate smoking is a universal one and more pronounced in Asia where …

The Institute of Mental Health, Singapore had just released the findings of its Second Mental Health Study (SMHS) and based on its results, 1 in every 7 residents of Singapore has experienced a mental disorder in their lifetime. The nationwide study had begun in 2016 and was based on a sample size of about 6,126 participants selected from 15,900 random …

A TODAY reader wrote in to the website to shared her experience with terribly long wait times at a public hospital as a subsidised patient. Senior Minister of State for Health Dr Lam Pin Min told parliament last week that the average waiting time for new subsidised specialist appointments has improved in the past five years, from 28 days in …