More Good Doctors Please
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - Posted by SunnyHealth - 0 comments
In the surprising major reshuffling of the Singapore cabinet last week, Mr Gan Kim Yong takes over Mr Khaw Boon Wan as Health Minister and has made a blog post to the official MOH blog yesterday.

He pinpoints 3 areas of concern with regards to health care in Singapore - supply of healthcare professionals and workers, healthcare costs and aging-related health issues. Correctly identifying the mistakes is always a good start, so that's half the battle won. Let's hope he perseveres with practical issues to solve them.

The short supply of healthcare professionals has always been a sore point among many locals. In the past, it was incredibly difficult to get into the medical courses in the local universities because requirements were so stringent, doctors-to-be had to literally be perfect to gain entry, and then subsequently be charged exorbitantly high tuition fees. One practically had to be rich, intelligent, have a great attitude, a good heart, ability to keep calm in a crisis, among many other things.


Probably like the doctors from ER. Haha.

Now, we face a shortage of doctors and nurses and hospitals are importing them from foreign countries. Apart from numerous complaints about communication breakdown between patient and health care staff due to language barriers, doctors (both local and foreign) are making headlines for lack of professionalism and poor ethics. What happened to the perfect doctors we were in pursuit of?

Importing doctors and nurses may be a short term solution, but in the long run, there are still many thorns in the flesh, for differences in work culture and ethics, language and and understanding of local issues cannot be overcome by a few technical courses. Furthermore,truly good doctors and nurses are supposed to help troubled patients feel at home and at ease, and there's little chance of that happening if the patient and medical staff can't even communicate effectively with each other.

MOH should work with the local universities, reduce entry requirements, but increase requirements and demands in the course of study (after all, skills and ethics can be improved more quickly during full-time study), so that in the years to come, we will enjoy the care of homegrown medical professionals who truly comprehend the healthcare needs of Singaporeans.


Braving the Haze
Monday, May 16, 2011 - Posted by SunnyHealth - 0 comments

It has been awhile! Apologies for the inactivity. The General Elections has been keeping me and just about every eligible voter in Singapore busy for the past weeks. I don't think I've had a less healthy week than the last. I was out until near or past midnight when I attended rallies. I always ate supper with my friends before I went home. To top it off, I've braved the rain and been sardine-canned among crowds of people, and come down with a bit of cold, either from the rain or germs from someone in the crowd, I do not know. On the night of the GE, I snacked on potato chips while I stayed up well into the wee hours of dawn.

Oh well, GE has never been so exciting in Singapore since the early days of independence, so it's all right to be unhealthy for a bit. After all, the election candidates probably have it far worst. The most important thing, however, is to nurse myself back to health. If you've read my previous blog entries, I mentioned that there's no such thing as making up for sleep loss by getting lots of sleep the next day. Once sleep is lost, it's lost forever. That's why it is ever so important to revert back to your daily, healthy, routine as soon as possible.

The return of the haze is an added burden to stuffy noses and weakened lungs. When I visited my GP, the queue of patients was so long that I waited more than an hour for my turn! In the following weeks, unfortunately, I believe more people will be dropping by the clinics (well we Singaporeans are a pampered lot). It's best to seek prevention rather than a cure.

All the more, a healthy lifestyle and a light diet is especially important during such times.

- Eat more fruits and vegetables. They help to keep those defense mechanisms in your body active.
- Drink lots of fluids, including water, soups and fruit juices, but stay away from soft drinks
- Porridge is a healthy dish, especially suitable for those nursing sore throats.
- Avoid exercising outdoors. Hit the gym, or if you live in a HDB flat, do some stair-climbing.
- If you're down with a flu, or your nose is irritated by the haze, wear a mask.
- Get lots of rest, sleep early and wake up early!

Good luck battling the haze and post-election blues!