When an elderly experiences a burn or scald, or a child falls and scrapes their elbows or knees, they might be rushed to the nearest hospital’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) department. However, doing so may result in long waiting times, with hospitals reporting high patient loads.
In fact, MOH has reported that many of the patients in A&E do not actually require emergency medical care. A study conducted at public hospitals stated that more than half of the cases treated at in A&E are for actually non-threatening cases.
Another place you can bring your loved ones to seek medical care are urgent care facilities. Urgent care facilities are healthcare premises designed to provide medical care for non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries.
Where people go to GPs for chronic conditions such as diabetes or minor conditions such as a stomach flu or mild respiratory infections, and they go to the A&E for serious and life-threatening emergencies such as uncontrollable bleeding, you can go to an urgent care facility, like FPH’s Medical Urgency Clinic, for medical conditions that require early attention but are not life-threatening.
Some examples of medical conditions treated at FPH’s Medical Urgency Clinic include:
Whereas for A&E, do seek medical attention immediately if you notice these symptoms:
According to Dr. Teng, urgent care facilities are able to run tests and scans faster than GP clinics. Hence, if your condition requires urgent attention, such as a head injury, you are advised to visit your closest urgent care facility.
“Sometimes patients come from GPs to exclude certain diagnoses, like appendicitis”, says Dr. Teng. “Situations like that are good here.”
At urgent care facilities, you will have access to scans and medical tests that can give you a more accurate diagnosis on what is plaguing you. Dr. Teng recounts an interesting experience with an elderly patient who came to see him for a small-scale laceration.
“He looked stable so I didn’t think too much about it and handed him to the neurosurgeon who gave him a brain scan,” Dr. Teng says. “We did that and found an eight cm tumor in the skull outside the brain, compressing it.”
“Without the laceration, we wouldn’t have discovered the tumor was there. And he got the laceration because he slipped and fell, not because he felt dizzy or anything so he totally did not present any symptoms.”
According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF)’s policy, patients will be sent to the nearest MOH-designated hospitals to be treated quickly. However, there may be times when public hospitals face high patient loads, leading to longer waiting times for admission and treatment.
In such cases with long wait times, you can consider going to urgent care facilities such as the one at Farrer Park Hospital to get your symptoms looked at and treated. Should a patient's condition require further workup, it can be done at their comfort and convenience at FPH’s 24- hour Medical Urgency Clinic. It is well-equipped with consultation rooms, an observation bay, a critical care area, and rooms for dressing, procedures and isolation.
Some conditions that Dr. Teng mentioned he has attended to before include kidney stones, abscesses, gastrointestinal issues, appendicitis and dislocations. If you are suffering from potentially life-threatening conditions such as a heat stroke or heart attack, Dr. Teng reiterates it is best to go to an A&E instead.
Another consideration to take into account when deciding what your mode of payment will be like.
“Are they paying out of pocket or are they covered by insurance?” says Dr. Teng. “If they are, they should check their coverage to know what they are entitled to.”
“There is a common misconception that you can only come to private healthcare if you have insurance,” Dr. Teng adds. “You don’t strictly have to. Price will be a factor with regards to healthcare but people must obviously find it worthwhile for its speed and personalised service that they can get here.”
Ultimately, whether you go to the A&E, your GP or an urgent care facility will depend on your needs. Some questions you should consider are:
