Healthcare Crunch is exploding in our face

The current hospital bed crunch could be just the tip of the ice berg we are seeing.  After all, most of us know that besides shortage of hospital beds, our healthcare professional to patient ratio looks bad. Upon diagnosis at polyclinic of needing specialist attention, the appointment date for specialists consultation is getting longer and longer these few years. From average of 3 months to 6 months. Now it has been reported that it could be as long as 9 to 12 months. Even if one has an appointment to see a specialist, the waiting time at the clinic/hospital is about 2 to 3 hours or even longer.

At SNEC (Singapore National Eye Center) seems like their consultation appointment is also getting more and more elastic. I am a glaucoma patient and I have noticed that my check up interval have been getting longer and longer...from 3 months to 4 months, ....to 6 months.   Now, it is more than a year!

Routine yearly check up is meant for those without eye disease, whereas patients with chronic eye diseases need to be monitored more closely for deterioration of vision which can lead to blindness. Thus, how can it be acceptable that SNEC patients' appointment be longer than 12 months interval.

I have just received a notice from SNEC to rescheduled my consultation on in Feb to Jul 14. The reason given is "Doctor On Leave" As my last consultation was on 13/6/13, it is more than 1 year interval between check-up!

My appointment had been rescheduled before, but the new appointment was about a month later. This time it is 5 months lapse! Is there such an acute shortage of doctors at SNEC that the existing ones cannot even cover for their colleague on leave ? Besides, it also seems to imply that the doctor on leave needs months to clear the backlog of patients. This is very worrying for a patient as it means SNEC is sacrificing healthcare quality service of patients due to manpower problem.

As far as I know, I don't have a any specialist assigned to me, as I have been seen by at least 5 ophthalmologists from 2011 to 2013. Thus, I find it unacceptable that SNEC postpone my consultation for 5 months resulting in more than a 1 year lapse between checkup.

The current term hospital bed crunch does not accurately reflects the dire situation on the ground.  We are having a Healthcare Crunch, where by all levels of patients care are affected. Besides hospital infrastructure and patient overload, there is a shortage of healthcare professional.

This poor planning reminds us of housing crunch recently, which is followed by a series of major MRT breakdown due to years of overloading.  Compare to housing and transport, healthcare is a more serious problem exploding in our face.  Is it acceptable that our so called 'A' team political party who are paid so handsomely be sleeping at their job ? 

Bamboo reinforcement for concrete

In the future bamboo may be replacing steel bar for reinforcement of concrete slabs/columns.  Bamboo has many advantages over steel as not only it does not corrode, it is lighter and highly sustainable material.  Bamboo continues to grow after it is cut.  Steel requires a huge amount of energy to produce, while bamboo leaves little carbon footprint and thus environmentally friendly.

It is not a new idea as in 1960s, US had experimental with bamboo as reinforcement due to it good tensile strength. However they failed as they used split bamboo which absorbed moisture and resulted in concrete cracking due to its swelling. When there was water lost, de-bonding happened between the bamboo and concrete.  That caused the structure to collapse.

The new approach is to extract the fibres from the bamboo and treat them so that they are water-proof. The project is being undertaken in a laboratory in Singapore. So if they are successful in commercializing bamboo reinforcement bars, our construction industry will likely be the first to benefit from the new technology.

2% of retirement income is from CPF

There is an article from The Edge magazine that said the findings from Allianz, a global asset management and insurance firm, found that on average only 2% of retirement disposable income comes from CPF. This is despite the fact the CPF force savings has been in place for decades and its main purpose is to see us through our old age. This is a sad and clear sign of the gross failure of one of our major national policies.

Retirees golden years have been turned into rotten years due to fail CPF policies which keep sucking more of our money into it with its chameleon policies.

The problem is over the years, CPF fund has become more of an easy money for govt investment rather than to see the citizens through their retirement years.  The miserable low CPF interest rates have been stagnant for more than a decade, although our sovereign wealth fund investment reaps handsome profit.

With the high inflation rate, run away public housing prices and medical cost, the more 'lucky' ones have with a roof over their head but little disposable income to see them through their twilight years. The unlucky ones will have no roof and little food on the table. The most unlucky ones will also be bankrupt by high medical fee.

Currently, seems like most elderly folks depend on their children for support, which accounts for some 60% of their retirement income. This ranks S'pore as one of the highest amongst our neighboring countries for poor retirement provision.

Even our neighboring countries' pension fund outstripped S'pore pathetic on average 2% CPF disposal income provision. We have to bear in mind that theirs is a pension fund, while CPF is in fact our own money, which the govt loves to refer to as 'pension' fund in recent years.

Family support is an issue for the young generation as they have to plan for their own retirement too,  while at the same time burden with raising up kids and supporting their aging parents. So can't blame the young couples for not wanting more than 1 kid.  Bearing in mind one can end up in court for not supporting your parents.*  Living within your means in S'pore is make sure you are able to support your parents and not to have more children than you can afford. It is expensive to bring up a child in S'pore and support of frail parents can be very taxing due to the high medical cost.

* Note : having a law that encourages parents to sue their children is not so much a reflection of the social fibre but the mentality of PAP.  They love to sue and welfare is a dirty word to them.

SMRT - concrete sleepers

SMRT are replacing the wooden sleepers with concrete ones in their major overhaul maintenance. They should give the public a cost comparison and detail of advantages between timber vs concrete sleepers.

Some time back, there was an allegation that SMRT used sub standard timber when replacing the current failing wooden sleepers. SMRT has refuted the allegation as untrue.  Since SMRT is capable of using plastic cable ties to hold parts together,  the public cannot be blamed for having doubts in SMRT selection of timber quality.

Now they announced they are using concrete sleepers, one wonders the reason behind it. Could it be cost consideration?  Timber sleepers are better sound and vibration absorber compare to concrete. Besides - they are lighter.

Hope SMRT has done a thorough load calculation of the concrete sleepers on the overhead MRT tracks which are supported on pillars.  Likely the concrete sleepers would have reinforced steel bars in them which increased their weight further.

Still fresh in our mind are the major breakdowns due to increased passage load and frequency of trains over stressing the train rails. Now there will be another new stress factor from concrete sleepers on the overhead tracks and rails.  It may have an impact on the structure integrity over time, especially if its original design is meant for wooden sleepers.

So looks like the money SMRT spend to upgrade the train's drive system to a quieter one will be undone by noisier concrete sleepers.  Jerkier train ride in future too ?

SPYING classification

The way our govt under PAP leadership deals with inquiry both during parliamentary session and in foreign diplomacy is the same - non answer or beat around the bushes.  So when our neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia questioned if S'pore is involved in the recent spying incident, the answer given by our 'esteem' minister is - he is not going to answer the question.  Instead he gave everyone a lecture on how spying is classified. Spying is considered as spying if it :
1) is harmful
2) there is 100%  involvement

What seems to be implied is that it is ok to spy on your neighbor if it is 'not harmful'. Sound pretty lame indeed. Don't think Malaysia nor Indonesia think it is acceptable. What a stupid answer, as it is an invitation for all countries to spy on S'pore as long as it is 'not harmful'.  Perhaps the minister should clearly define what constitute 'harmful' and 'not harmful'.

The 2nd spying classification by percentage is equally idiotic. According to our 'esteem' minister - since it is difficult to determine the percentage - "5% true or 95% true", therefore he could not provide an answer if S'pore spied on our neighbors.  Is he implying that only if it is 100% involvement - then it is consider as spying?  So maybe because S'pore only 'assisted' US and Australia in their spying activities, S'pore involvement is less than 100% . Therefore it is not consider as spying.  By his account, our neighboring countries can join force and spy on S'pore, as long as each of their involvement is less than 100%.

If one does something behind your neighbor's back, yet does not have the guts to stand up for your action when confronted - what does it says about that person ?  When you cannot justify your action, then at least offer an apology. Sigh - we the citizens are ashamed of our govt under PAP leadership.