The ST report, titled “Hospitals facing severe bed crunch take unusual steps”, said the hospitals were housing patients in “tents and corridors” or were sending them to other hospitals.
It said Changi General Hospital (CGH), for example, is “housing patients waiting for beds in a large air-conditioned tent”.
Tan Tock Seng hospital, on the other hand, “has been forced to set up 49 beds along the corridors of its wards to cope with the demand” for beds.
This is not new for TTSH.
In 2010 and 2012, demand for beds was so high that it was also forced to put patients in corridors while they waited for the beds to be available.
In the Straits Times report, CGH’s chief executive officer, Dr Lee Chien Earn, was reported to have said: “Our bed occupancy rate has crossed 100 per cent for certain periods over the past month and some patients have waited for more than 24 hours for an inpatient bed.”
The Straits Times reported:
“Dr Chia Shi Lu, a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, suggested that the crunch might be due to the holiday season rather than a spike in illnesses.”
TOC’s report on this story
Post by Cartoon Press.
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