Consider designated CHAS clinics for every Singaporean

The Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) by the Ministry of Health (MOH), which enables Singaporeans to receive subsidies at participating general practitioners (GPs), aims to ensure that Singaporeans receive medical care near their homes.

However, based on anecdotes reported in the media, it appears that patients continue to seek medical treatment at polyclinics, leading to long waits.

A coordinated national system where every Singaporean is matched to a few CHAS GP clinics near his or her residential area may reduce the high patient load at polyclinics and provide more convenient and coordinated care by the GPs.

Similar to an election where each voter casts his vote at a designated polling station, every Singaporean could be informed of his nearest participating CHAS clinics where he will be eligible for subsidised medical treatment.

To make the system more appealing, there could be additional incentives such as more subsidies for medical treatment. This could also help change public perception of GPs and remind the public that they also provide affordable healthcare.

One might argue that we should wait for more, if not all, GPs to register to participate in the CHAS.

But given that the take-up rate has so far been encouraging, we should recognise that there will always be some GPs who will not enrol in the scheme. Hence, such a national effort should commence sooner rather than later. Doing so may also encourage GPs who have not registered to reconsider.

The MOH has taken good steps to increase the speed of development of the healthcare infrastructure, by building more polyclinics and liberalising the use of Medisave.

It should, however, recognise that polyclinics would never provide the same convenience compared with GPs and that the public resistance to seeking subsidised care at CHAS GPs could be due to a lack of information and communication on the advantages of doing so.

It is important that the MOH improves on this, so other public healthcare resources — such as the accident and emergency department at hospitals — could better focus on their core roles.