The expansion of subsidies for conditions such as thyroid diseases under the CHAS program and the Chronic Disease Management Programme, scheduled for next year, will increase pressure on community clinics in Singapore. Dr. Mark Khoo, who uses a Primary Care Network (PCN) to refer diabetes patients to specialist nurses, warns that current waiting times are an obstacle to treatment efficiency.
Primary Care Network: digital referrals to streamline consultations 🏥
PCNs integrate electronic referral systems that allow general practitioners to assign patients to chronic disease specialist nurses without manual paperwork. However, Dr. Khoo points out that the lack of same-day slots limits the benefit of this technology. A viable solution would be to synchronize clinic schedules with the PCN software to enable immediate post-consultation appointments, reducing the gap between diagnosis and educational intervention or medication adjustment.
Nurse today, or wait until the next eclipse ⏳
Dr. Khoo dreams of his patients seeing the nurse on the same day, but the system responds with appointments for the next rainy season. Meanwhile, patients with thyroid and diabetes conditions queue up, and specialist nurses become celebrities hard to schedule. If bureaucracy were a sport, Singapore would win a gold medal in the waiting marathon.