Chairman Sir,
The Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS) by MOH has helped needy elderly and disabled Singaporeans receive subsidized treatment at General Practitioners (GPs) and dental clinics near their homes. The scheme is convenient. It saves travel time and expenses. It also eases the pressure on polyclinics to expand its services and facilities to cope with the increased patient load. I understand there is good support for this scheme from the GPs located in the heartland neighbourhoods.
Could the Minister provide the statistics on the current patient participation rate and share with the house the experience gained by his Ministry in administering the scheme?
Could the Minister also provide information on whether the annual subsidy of up to $240 to $360 for the treatment of chronic conditions is enough?
The current criteria for patients to qualify under this scheme for subsidized treatment are quite stringent. The qualifying age is 65 and above and the per capita monthly household income of the applicant must be $800 or below. If not, a patient has to be disabled and earning the same income level or on the Public Assistance (PA) scheme.
Would the Ministry of Health consider reviewing the criteria to enable more needy patients to benefit from this scheme? For example:
a. The qualifying age could be revised to be lower than 65; and
b. The qualifying per capita monthly household income of $800 to be revised upward;
c. The requirement for the patient to be unable to do any of the six activities of daily living (ADL) could be reviewed; and
MOH could also consider a tiered system of subsidies where polyclinic patients can choose to be included in this scheme but be given lesser subsidies than if they were to go to a polyclinic.