Parliament: Hong Kong’s hospital beds ratio double S’pore’s?

(Photo: TODAY)

January 27, 2016

Doctor, nurse ratios comparable to other Asian economies

I refer to the article “Doctor, nurse ratios in Singapore comparable to other Asian economies: MOH” (Channel NewsAsia, Jan 27).

It states that “Singapore’s doctor-to-population ratio of 21 doctors per 10,000 in the population is comparable to that of Hong Kong and Taiwan at 18.

“We are on track to meet our target of providing 9,000 acute beds, 3,000 community hospital beds and 17,000 nursing home beds by 2020″”.

Why never compare ratio of hospital beds?

I was curious as to why although a comparison was made for the ratio of the number of doctors and nurses with Hong Kong and Taiwan – there was no comparison for hospital beds.

Hong Kong’s ratio of hospital beds double S’pore’s?

There was a total of 31,537 hospital beds in Hong Kong (Number of Hospital Beds in Hospitals in Hospital Authority 27,631 + Number of Hospital Beds in Private Hospitals 3,906) for end 2014.

This works out to a hospital beds to population ratio of 44 hospital beds per 10,000 population (31,537 beds divided by 7,241,700 population).

In contrast, Singapore’s 12,505 hospital beds in 2014, according to the Department of Statistics’ Yearbook of Statistics 2015 – works out to a ratio of only 23 beds per 10,000 population (12,505 divided by 5,540,000).

So, does it mean that Hong Kong’s ratio is almost double (44 divided by 23 = 91 per cent more) Singapore’s?

Taiwan’s ratio of hospital beds triple S’pore’s?

For Taiwan, the ratio was 66 (2013).

So, does it mean that Taiwan’s ratio was almost triple (66 divided by 23 = 187 per cent more) Singapore’s?

S’pore’s hospital beds increased 4.8% from 2001 to 2014?

Of course, it didn’t help that – the number of total hospital beds in Singapore was 11,936 in 2001 and only increased by about 4.8 per cent (12,505 divided by 11,936 beds) from 2001 to 2014?

Population increased 35% by 1.44m?

Against this, the population has increased by 35.1 per cent from 4.1 million in 2001 to 5.54 million in June 2015.

Reciprocate trust with more help?

Since the people have given their trust and mandate – shouldn’t we reciprocate by being more transparent?

We should spend more to help Singaporeans.

Leong Sze Hian

 

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About the Author

Leong
Leong Sze Hian has served as the president of 4 professional bodies, honorary consul of 2 countries, an alumnus of Harvard University, authored 4 books, quoted over 1500 times in the media , has been a radio talkshow host, a newspaper daily columnist, Wharton Fellow, SEACeM Fellow, columnist for theonlinecitizen and Malaysiakini, executive producer of Ilo Ilo (40 international awards), Hotel Mumbai (associate producer), invited to speak more than 200 times in about 40 countries, CIFA advisory board member, founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of 2 countries. He has 3 Masters, 2 Bachelors degrees and 13 professional  qualifications.