NUH explains handling of patient admission

Dec 25, 2006 Straits Times Forum

NUH explains handling of patient admission

WE REFER to the letter, 'This is no way to treat a subsidised patient' by Ms Goh Huimei (ST, Dec 18).

We have contacted Ms Goh to thank her for her feedback and apologise for the inconvenience and anxiety she and her father experienced. We can understand her concerns and would like to assure her and your readers that we are committed to provide appropriate medical care and services to all patients, regardless of their payment status.

The bed situation in hospitals can be unpredictable due to emergency admissions and inpatients whose condition has turned for the worse. For scheduled operations where a patient needs to be monitored in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after surgery (as in Mr Goh's case), we also need to ensure an ICU bed is available. This is for the patient's safety.

When there is no bed available, we will call patients to advise rescheduling their procedure. This is a planned activity aimed to reduce the patient's waiting time for surgery upon admission, and is done for all patients (except those who are clinically assessed to need urgent medical treatment).

Our staff called Ms Goh on Dec 12 to reschedule her father's admission. She asked to proceed with admission. Mr Goh was admitted with his operation scheduled the following day, subject to availability of an ICU bed.

Following admission, we had to prepare Mr Goh for surgery. Typically, patients need to fast a minimum of six hours before surgery. As Mr Goh's operation was second on the schedule, he was advised to fast from midnight on Dec 12. When it was near his operation time, there was still no ICU bed available. To ensure appropriate post-surgery care, a decision was made to proceed with the surgery when an ICU bed was available.

When we received Ms Goh's feedback on Dec 13, our Quality Service staff met her to address her concerns. As Ms Goh said she would like to discharge her father for admission to another hospital, our staff contacted the other hospital to find out about its bed situation and updated Ms Goh. A discharge summary was also provided to facilitate continuation of care.

We will continue to manage .........................

We will be happy to assist Ms Goh if she has other feedback. She can contact Mrs Deborah Ee (senior manager, Quality Improvement Unit) on 6772-2297.

Chua Song Khim
Chief Executive Officer
National University Hospital

Dec 18, 2006

This is no way to treat a subsidised patient

MY FATHER was scheduled for bypass surgery at National University Hospital (NUH). The day before admission, NUH called to change the operation date.

On the day of admission, the time was changed three times. After admission, my father was left in bed with no doctors, no nurses and no instructions. Although he was due for an operation the next day, no one gave any pre-operation instructions.

On the day of the operation, the doctors told us the operation was not confirmed. My poor father was left 'fasting' the whole day even though the operation was not confirmed.

So we asked for a discharge, .............................

We are disappointed with the service NUH provided. Should patients in the subsidised class be treated this way?

Goh Huimei (Ms)

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