Singapore investigates lapses in healthcare protocol at migrant workers' dorm

The MOM said on Wednesday that the Forward Assurance and Support Team (Fast) officers visited the dorm in Jalan Tukang Wednesday after claims surfaced involving a breach of healthcare protocols and lack of access to medical support, as well as poor quality of catered food.

The Singapore Police Force had also responded to a call for assistance to the dormitory at about 12.55 pm, the MOM told The Straits Times.

The claims were made in an online report on the Chinese news portal Weixin.

The MOM said in a statement, ''We are working on transferring those who required further medical care to the appropriate healthcare facilities for treatment.

''Roommates of positive cases were allowed to return to work upon producing a negative antigen rapid test (ART) result.'' Dormitory residents who wished to see a doctor were taken to a regional medical centre daily and have been given access to telemedicine, the statement added.

The ministry said it has also deployed mobile clinical teams to help needy workers.

Dormitory residents, it added, have been given three meals a day by their employer.

However, the employer has been apprised of the feedback from the workers on the quality of the catered food.

The employer, MOM added, has since engaged workers about the issue, and to find out if they have other concerns.

The ministry said it will continue to work with all stakeholders, including dormitory operators and employers, to take care of and ensure the well-being of migrant workers.

It said, ''We also seek feedback from workers through the existing channels, such as through our officers on the ground or through the dormitory operator.'' Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reported 3,190 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, including 498 residents of dormitories for foreign workers, six who arrived from abroad and nine deaths.

The MOH said nine Singaporeans, aged between 52 and 98 years old, have died from complications linked to COVID-19. They were six men and three women, six of whom were unvaccinated, one partially vaccinated (given one dose) and one vaccinated.

As of Wednesday, 192 have died due to COVID-19 linked complications and 135,395 infections since the start of the pandemic.

Of the 1,507 patients currently warded in hospitals, mostly for observation, 300 patients need oxygen supplementation and 46 are in intensive care, the MOH said.

Separately, a Channel News Asia report on Thursday said Singapore's soaring COVID-19 cases have placed significant strain on its healthcare system.

“I haven’t seen the daylight in ages,” the Channel quoted one junior doctor, who works at a public hospital in Singapore.

“The healthcare system is strained to the maximum now and will continue to be,” he said.

“This will only end once the numbers come down but who knows when this will be?” Among hospitals tracked by the Ministry of Health (MOH), the latest figures show that daily bed occupancy rates ranged from 75 per cent to nearly 95 per cent from September 26 to October 2.

“It does put pressure on our resources because while you can open more beds to take in more patients, you also need more nurses and doctors to take care of them,” another healthcare worker at Changi General Hospital told the Channel which has spoken to workers at seven hospitals.

“For a nurse to handle one patient in the ICU is not easy. So sometimes, they have two nurses to one patient, and they help each other,” he said, adding that junior doctors are also placed on duty to help out.

Singapore's soaring COVID-19 cases, on days more than 3,000 infections daily reported, have placed significant strain on its healthcare system. Waiting times and bed occupancy rates at hospitals have surged.

New wards appeared to be opening ''almost every day'' over the past few months, said healthcare workers from the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and hospitals such as Singapore General Hospital and Changi General Hospital.

“I’ve experienced situations where a ward opens at around 9 pm, and by 10 pm there are already more than 10 patients coming at one go, waiting for me to see them ... I have never had such a depressing call throughout my medical life,” one medical officer from NCID said to the Channel.

“The wards are designed for infectious diseases ... it’s supposed to be one patient isolated in a single room and so, we tried at first to accommodate this by opening new wards.” But with patients coming in ''non-stop'', two or even three patients are now being put in a single room, he said.