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by ValuePenguin
With the growth of the elderly population, Singaporean hospitals may soon run out of resources, leading to overcrowding and frustration among patients. However, there are some concerns that increased congestion is also a current problem. Read on to find out if Singapore hospitals are really overcrowded.
While the Singaporean health system has been rated as one of the most effective in the world, Singaporeans seem to think differently. In fact, 72% of Singaporeans feel that their health care system is lacking. This can be attributed to a number of reasons, ranging from hospital attendance to longer waiting times and a decrease in medical resources such as hospital beds.
In this article, we discuss hospital overpopulation.
Hospital beds increase at a slower pace than hospital admissions
Our research found that the number of Singaporeans admitted to hospitals each day is increasing, which could lead to hospitals. are more crowded. For example, recent data suggest that while the total population increased by 1.4% between 2015 and 2017, acute hospitalizations in public and private hospitals increased by 15% and 9.4% respectively.
This means that more Singaporeans are admitted to hospitals. daily compared to previous years. Similarly, data between 2008 and 2014 show similar trends – while the total population increased by 13% between 2007 and 2014, the average daily admission rate for all public and private hospitals increased by 17% and 17% respectively. 24%. This suggests that acute care hospitals are not the only medical institutions to cope with higher admission rates.
The increase in hospitalizations could be due to a number of factors including the aging of the population and the increase in mortality rates. (Mortality rates increased by 3.2% compared to total population growth of 2.5% between 2014 and 2016), other factors may also contribute to overcrowding. An important factor is the decrease in the number of hospital beds available by Singapore because it indicates that more Singaporeans are fighting over the same medical resource.
To illustrate this case, between 2015 and 2017, there was a 15% increase in admissions to acute public hospitals compared to a 6% increase in acute public hospital beds . Similarly, acute private hospitals experienced a 9% increase in hospitalizations, compared to a 3.2% increase in hospital beds.
This trend was fairly consistent even before 2015, as the admission rate in all public hospitals increased. % compared to a 14.7% increase in beds. These trends may suggest that even though hospitals are trying to keep up with the increasing rate of admission, overcrowding could become a significant problem if hospitals are unable to meet demand in the future.
week
Although there is an overall increase in hospitalizations, it happens that hospitals experience varying levels of congestion. This means that some Singaporeans may be overcrowded while others may have a radically different experience.
In general, our data show that Singaporeans admitted to the hospital on weekdays will feel more crowded than Singaporeans admitted on weekends due to the fact. longer waiting times and bed occupancy.
One of the most frustrating experiences is getting stuck in a waiting room for hours of illness or serious injury. Long periods of waiting often occur when there is not enough medical staff available for the number of patients and can therefore be a symptom of overcrowding.
Our data from a weekly sample of 6 public hospitals from July 2018 revealed that being admitted to a room is 2.5 hours. In addition, hospitals have the longest wait times in the middle of the week, with an average waiting time of 3.2 hours between Tuesdays and Thursdays compared to 1.6 hours on weekends. end and 2.3 hours on Monday or Friday
. shows that patients admitted to the hospital during the week will have a greater perception of overcrowding than those admitted on weekends.
While waiting times are a potential symptom of overcrowding, the number of beds also be an indicator that a hospital exceeds capacity. Currently, the bed occupancy rate in Singapore is close to 100%, which may mean that there is a risk of overcrowding as more Singaporeans begin to seek treatment. For example, while the annual average is 85%, weekly data for 2018 show an average of 89% capacity, with two hospitals having 95-96% of their beds occupied.
In fact, one day, the Khoo Tek Phuat Hospital recorded an occupation rate of 100.9%, which means that he was too busy. As with wait time data, the bed occupancy rate was highest between Monday and Wednesday. This means that Singaporeans in public hospitals in the middle of the week will experience more overcrowding than those admitted on weekends.
Which hospitals are the most overcrowded?
As we saw in the previous paragraph, the Khoo Tek Phuat Hospital had the highest bed occupancy rate of 96%, with a weekday of the week. Sampling exceeding 100%. However, it also had the lowest wait time, which means that the rate of turnover at the hospital is quite fast.
In contrast, Tan Tong Seng Hospital had the longest weekly waiting time of 4.5 hours. He also had the second highest occupancy rate of 95% beds. This means that on average, the most overcrowded hospital would be Tan Tong Seng. The busiest hospital would be the Changi General Hospital, where the bed occupancy rate is the lowest (85%) and the second shortest waiting time (1). , 7 hour)
Which means for Singaporeans
the geriatric population is growing faster hospital facilities can realistically follow, it seems that more and more Singaporeans will have a sense of overpopulation in hospitals. In addition, even if Singapore decides to build more facilities to meet the demand, it will still take some time for these projects to be planned and completed. Meanwhile, while age can lead to health issues regardless of lifestyle, young Singaporeans can focus on preventing illnesses to prevent diseases requiring hospital treatment. However, those currently making frequent trips to the hospital may consider purchasing an integrated private hospital protection plan, as private hospitals still display significantly lower admission rates than hospitals public hospitals and public hospitals. can offer a less congested experience. However, it is worth noting that NPs for private hospitals are about 127% more expensive than a Ward A plan, which means an increase in costs ranging from 118 to 1,527 Canadian dollars.
So, you should weigh the increase in costs
This was first published on the website of Value Penguin, " Are Singaporean hospitals- they overcrowded? ". [19659030].
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