by Katie

Created on: June 12, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

"What is the average waiting time for a patient to get warded?"

"I've got patients that waited for 48 hours" came the nonchalant reply.

This was the reply I got last month when we sent our mother to the emergency department of a public-assisted hospital. And I am writing from Singapore, where our health services are supposedly touted as "world class".

My mother had been complaining about a headache for a month or so. Being a retired civil-servant, I advised her to go to the neighbourhood polyclinic to get it checked and referred if need be. I thought maybe she should go get a cat scan. Anyhow, when she finally went, she was given a referral letter to go to the hospital to get admitted and checked.

She started her wait at the A&E department at about 2pm on a Monday. My dad was with her. When I found out at about 7 pm that evening, I went to the hospital thinking it'll be another hour or so when they can get her warded into the rooms. She had the exact same idea and shooed me off at about half past eight.

The next morning, I called my father, wanting him to tell me the ward and bed number that my mother was in. TO MY HORROR, he told me that she has yet been warded. I went to the hospital, thinking, I should accompany her till either my father gets there, or she gets warded. Added on to my worries and dismay, when I went to the emergency ward to look for her, I was told she had been moved to another holding area.

It was a sorry sight. This area was definitely part of the carpark, but has been fabricated into what looks like a de-contamination area (during the SARs period), with shower hoses installed onto the ceiling. Male and female patients were lined separately on each side of the wall, with standing fans as the divided for the two groups of people.

According to my mom, she could not sleep the previous night and her headache would not go away. And all she got for the headache was paracetamol. And still, the waiting for a bed was no where in sight. I went in search for an administrator to query. When I found him (a foreigner at that), he was unsympathetic and could not answer any queries I had. He simply told me that I had to check with the nurses.

This is ridiculous! What is an administrator for? Why could he not answer questions like "How long is the average waiting time?" "Will it help if I moved my mom to a different class?" Instead, I had to go back to the nurses' station and ask a nurse (MIND YOU, THIS IS THE EMERGENCY WARD!) to verify answers for me. Do they

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