Rejected by ST Forum
Fees in privatized government hospitals
Since the hospitals were privatised many years ago, they have had a policy that if you, as a patient of their Specialist Clinic, whether at SGH or Changi Hospital, if you do not visit the doctor for more than one calendar year, will have to pay the FULL consultation fees, etc. and treated as a brand-new patient all over again (which means higher fees instead of the normal REPEAT visit fee).
I experienced that last year when I went to see the same doctor who had operated on me 10 years ago, and whom I had gone for annual checkups except for last year when I exceeded a few days.
Well, when I protested, the reply was every organisation has their own POLICY and everybody else in Singapore is paying, so why not you? If every Singaporean keeps quiet and accepts paying the higher fees, why do you want to create a fuss?
In these days of exhorbitant medical and dental charges by the so-called privatised Government Hospitals, this policy is another example of money-grabbing policies condoned by the those in power and discreetly introduced without your knowing it until you are affected (if you check the bill before paying).The local newspapers will never publish this so the public are none the wiser.
So Singaporeans who believe that the venue for public-speaking at Hong Lim Green means the authorities are 'opening up' are very naive indeed FOR it is just another smokescreen towards the undermining of democracy, if indeed there is democracy in Singapore - because a simple and unfair practice that affects EVERY SINGAPOREAN is buried so that every Singaporean reads only what he is supposed to read - IF YOU ONLY READ WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO READ, THEN YOU WILL BE COUNTED - AS A MERE DIGIT! Not as a citizen of a 'developed country' who has RIGHTS!
Christopher Goh