Doctors allowed to move around in Singapore

Straits Times ^ | June 4

[DeaconBenjamin]

Health-care workers can move between hospitals again as tough restrictions to contain Sars are relaxed in phases

WITH no new Sars case reported here for more than three weeks, public and private health-care workers are being allowed, in phases, to move freely across hospitals and clinics.

Yesterday, doctors, nurses, therapists and hospital aides in private hospitals and clinics were allowed to move freely across private health-care institutions.

From June 16 onwards, they will also be able to practise or work in public hospitals and clinics, the Health Ministry said last night.

This is a significant relaxation of the tough measures to prevent Sars spreading among private hospitals. All doctors in private practice had been restricted to treating patients in only one hospital each, since April 22.

But with the easing of restrictions, every hospital and clinic must monitor all its people who worked in another hospital within the previous 10 days and ensure they have no fever and are well.

In the public sector, similar restrictions are already being lifted gradually.

On Monday, medical officers moved to new postings in public health-care institutions. Next Monday, advanced trainee specialists will do the same.

And from June 16, all other public health-care workers will be allowed to work in public or private institutions.

Next, health-care workers in some wards may not have to wear the close-fitting N95 mask at all times. Since many wards are not air-conditioned, wearing this mask is very uncomfortable, said Sars combat chief Khaw Boon Wan.

But strict measures must stay in 'hot areas' such as fever wards and isolation rooms.

Visiting a Changi nursing home, the incoming Acting Health Minister said Sars could still be imported, but if it infected fewer than 10 people and did not spread to hospital staff, he would be 'fairly satisfied'.

So other measures imposed at the height of the scare - the requirement for health declaration forms, for example - may be relaxed and relooked, to keep them simple and workable.

The Health Ministry and public hospitals will produce a manual on what is to be done if another outbreak happens.

Said Mr Khaw: 'It is like a fire drill. So we have gone through the fire, we have learnt the hard way how to fight the fire... So when the alarm rings, everyone knows what you can do and where your station is.'

Since May 31, there have been no new probable Sars cases, no discharges and no deaths. Nine people are still in hospital, four of them critically ill, the ministry said.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Will similar restrictions be coming to a community near you? Residents in my neck of the woods are particularly curious as to the answer to this question.