Hospitals Do more to avoid unnecessary trips to hospital by the elderly
My 80-year-old father suffers from both heart failure and kidney failure.

He undergoes peritoneal dialysis every night, a process which takes between 10 and 11 hours.

He takes a cocktail of medicine to address his "complex set of medical problems", as his cardiologist wrote in a report.

My family and I are grateful to Singapore's medical system and the professionals at Singapore General Hospital for keeping my father going.

Because of his condition, my father is required to visit the hospital several times every month for various tests, scans and the occasional emergency dialysis, as well as to see doctors to discuss the test results.

Last week, my father was required to see a consultant at the National Heart Centre Singapore as a follow-up to a heart scan done some time ago.

In a discussion that took no more than a few minutes, the doctor's advice was that nothing further could be done for him.

My family members accept the results, but are puzzled that the consultation was not done remotely.

When I asked the doctor why the results could not be delivered over the phone or via a video call, especially since the test results had already been available for some time, his reply was that first-time consultations were required to be in-person.

A hospital visit, which can easily take up to several hours, is especially taxing on elderly patients and those with medical complications.

With the high number of Covid-19 cases, hospitals should deprioritise visits that involve only delivering test results.

Video-conferencing and telemedicine should become default options for patients, especially the elderly, seriously ill and the immunocompromised.

During these times, we must adapt to doing what's right and what's safe, instead of sticking to the "because this is how we do things" line.

Dinesh Subramaniam

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/forum/forum-do-more-to-avoid-unnecessary-trips-to-hospital-by-the-elderly

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/forum/forum-do-more-to-avoid-unnecessary-trips-to-hospital-by-the-elderly

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