- More regulation of the healthcare industry, particularly doctors - lawyers chairing the SMC Disciplinary Committee, doctors getting fined 10 times more than they currently do now. The $1 (or several) million dollar question - can the 'wild wild west' of the private sector be reined in? Will there be more prominent doctors investigated rather than the usual 'uncle-type' GPs who have prescribed excessive sleeping pills?
- H1N1 hype - we will end up with a huge stockpile of unsold vaccines.
- Chaos when the Residency program starts in May, as the public hospitals struggle to cope with increased teaching requirements while the junior doctors try to deal with the 'express' vs 'normal' stream divide that will arise.
- Nurses and nurse-clinicians taking over more of the responsibilities of doctors.
- A boom in compulsive behavior studies as the casinos (sorry, integrated resorts!) open.
- Even greater congestion at hospitals and emergency departments, even with the welcome opening of (part of) the KTPH.
- More money poured into cancer and infectious diseases research (especially basic science) - will we see anything useful for the common folk coming out this year rather than just claims of breakthroughs in the ST??
- Big GP chains and conglomerates squeezing out more and more single GP establishments. A reprise of Sheng Shiong vs wet markets?!
- More complaints about junior doctors on this blog....
We are now a week into the new year, and it would be good to contemplate what might possibly happen for the rest of the year for healthcare in Singapore. Not all indications are positive (in fact, most are not), but feel free to add to the list:
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2 comments:
point #9: hey, no fair! :)
#3. you forgot about the 'special' stream guys who are in their final year 2010.
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