A man was yesterday convicted of insulting the modesty of a woman doctor by insisting that she look at his semen while in her consultation room.  Eng Wah Wooh, 43, was S$2000 and jailed for one day. (Straits Times 14 Sep 2003 1)

  A new S$257-million medical centre, the Novena Medical Centre, will be built directly over the Novena MRT station and across the road from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). It will be linked to TTSH by a tunnel and an air-conditioned overhead bridge that will be wide enough for trolley beds to be pushed across. The new medical centre, which will open in 2005, will have 136 medical suites occupying 13,000 sq m. It will be allowed to use all the hospital's facilities at market rates. (Straits Times 29 Nov 2002) (4)

  A doctor with a clinic in Jalan Bukit Merah has been suspended and fined for handing out an addictive sleeping pill too freely. Dr TING Chooi Wan, a practising doctor since 1986, was suspended for 18 months and fined S$5,000 for over-prescribing Dormicum at her Red-Dale Clinic. (Straits Times 17 Sep 2002) (3)

  The Singapore Medical Council (SMC) has censured a doctor for asking an 18-year-old patient the race and religion of the person she would like to marry. General practitioner Mukundan Nair was treating the patient for an infection in the upper respiratory tract at a Raffles Medical Group clinic in Tampines last month when he asked the embarrassing questions. He now works at the Institute of Mental Health. This is the second time he has been censured by the SMC. (Straits Times 15 Aug 2002) (H4)

  There are no plans to introduce means testing at government hospitals and polyclinics, said Health Minister LIM Hng Kiang yesterday. Means testing involves pegging the amount of subsidies a patients receives to his income so, the poorer the patient, the higher the subsidy. Yesterday, Mr LIM noted that means testing has been used for nursing-home residents since July 2000, and for hospice patients since October 2001. From July 1, it will be extended to patients at community hospitals, he said. (Straits Times 6 May 2002) (3)

  New polyclinics will be opened in 2004 in Jurong West (at the corner of Jurong West Central 1 and Jurong West Street 64), Sengkang (at the junction of Sengkang East Way and Compassvale Road) and Queenstown (at the junction of Queensway and Commonwealth Avenue). The polyclinic in Queensway will replace the one at Margaret Drive. (Straits Times 11 Apr 2002) (H1) 

  A doctor was jailed yesterday for tax evasion, and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) warned that more such cases will be brought before the courts in the coming months. CHUA Pong Kuan, 53, a general practitioner, was sentenced to two weeks' jail for not paying S$196,000 in taxes. He is only the fourth person ever jailed for tax evasion. CHUA also has to pay IRAS almost S$600,000 - three times the amount he owed in taxes. CHUA's clinic, Medico Clinic and Surgery, is in Jurong East Street 24. (Straits Times 4 Apr 2002) (1)

  Pregnant women will be screened automatically for the HIV virus at polytechnics unless they specifically say "no". It will be done as part and parcel of the antenatal screening package which comprises hepatitis B and syphilis tests, said polyclinic officials. The opt-out scheme, which began last year, is aimed at fighting a common fear among women of being discriminated against if found to be HIV positive. Today, 7.1 million people in Asia have Aids. Singapore has about 1,600 such patients. (Straits Times 15 Mar 2002) (H3)

  From today, over 100,000 poor people over the age of 65 will be able to get a filling done or have their teeth polished at a private dental clinic for just S$6. They can go to over 100 private dental clinics for treatment, including getting dentures, and pay polyclinic rates. They can also consult general practitioners (GPs) in over 400 private clinics nationwide, at polyclinic rates of S$4 for consultation and 70 cents for a week's supply of each medicine. As the patients pay only subsidised rates, the Health Ministry will pay both dentists and GPs a fixed amount to help make up the difference. The Government subsidises between 50 and 75 per cent of the cost. The subsidy is expected to cost S$6 million a year for dental treatments and S$2 million for medical care. (Straits Times 1 Mar 2002) (3)

  Doctors will have to pay substantially higher premiums next year to insure themselves against negligence claims from patients and patients' families. They now pay S$700 and S$5,250 a year. The big increase comes in the wake of a trebling of claims against doctors here over the past four years, coupled with higher awards by the courts. London-based Medical protection Society (MPS) insures three in four doctors here. Its international operations manager, Dr Tim Hegan, told The Straits Times that if this trend continues, he expects premiums to go up again in 2003. (Straits Times 9 Nov 2001) (3)

    Doctors here have been told to look out for and report all cases of potentially-deadly diseases: botulism, plaque, smallpox and anthrax. Clinical guidelines have been given to all doctors on the symptoms to look for. They have also been urged to send all suspected cases to hospital and to inform the Environment Ministry's Quarantine and Epidemiology Department of suspected as well as confirmed cases. These measures follow the anthrax-mail scare in the United States. (Straits Times 30 Oct 2001) (4)

  Private clinics are closing earlier, laying off staff, or downsizing during the current economic downturn. The Straits Times polled 40 GP clinics and found that of the 20 that operated round the clock, five now close at 11pm. Another eight that used to stay open till midnight now shut at 9pm. The rest said the number of walk-in patients had fallen by about 20 to 30 per cent over the last few months. Private clinics have been springing up like mushrooms over the past two years, with 1,158 of them in 1999. Last year, there were almost 1,900. But, while GP clinics provide about 85 per cent of primary health care, it is the 16 polyclinics that draw patients with their rates. (Straits Times 17 Sep 2001) (H1)

  A doctor who failed to detect that a foreign maid was 20-weeks pregnant has been censured by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) and ordered to pay a fine of S$5,000 for professional misconduct. Dr NG Chee Weng, 68, saw the maid when she visited his clinic in Tanjong Katong for a pregnancy screening in October 1999. According to SMC records, in 1998 and 1999, there were four complaints against doctors for failure to detect pregnancies. Overall, the SMC received 45 complaints against doctors in 1999. Most were for professional negligence and misdiagnosis. In 1999, the SMC also carried out 17 disciplinary inquiries, which also saw three doctors being suspended for between three and six months for over-prescribing drugs. (Straits Times 9 May 2001)

  A Mount Elizabeth Hospital nursing sister was charged on 4 Apr 2001 with causing the death of a two-day-old baby through her negligence, by injecting him with the wrong medicine. Kanagaratnam Nanmalar, 51, allegedly gave the baby a lethal dose of a sedative, instead of the anti-convulsant as a doctor had instructed. Nanmalar has been suspended from work and is out on S$6,000 bail. The case will be mentioned again on 16 May 2001. (Straits Times 5 Apr 2001)

  Jurong Polyclinic will start night clinics in January 2001. If this pilot scheme proves successful, other busy polyclinics may do the same, said Health Minister LIM Hng Kiang on 20 Nov 2000 at the launch of the National Healthcare Group (NHG), which is the cluster of hospitals, specialist centres and polyclinics in the west and north of the country.