Longer wait times at emergency depts of hospitals likely due to post-holiday surge in demand

The high volume of patients at several hospitals' emergency departments (EDs) this week, which has resulted in longer waiting times, is likely due to a post-public holiday surge in demand.

- Sherlyn Sim

In response to media queries, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on May 16 that acute hospitals can experience higher attendance at their EDs during specific times of the year, and that the current rise in wait times at hospitals is consistent with the typical post-public holiday surge.

On May 14, Changi General Hospital (CGH) and Sengkang General Hospital (SKH) announced in separate Facebook posts that they have been seeing a high volume of patients at their EDs.

MOH said that despite the increased patient numbers at the ED, hospitals will maintain prompt triage procedures to quickly identify those with critical medical conditions. This ensures that such patients are attended to urgently and patient care is not compromised.

For patients awaiting admission at the ED, inpatient teams will also be activated to begin treatment to prevent delays in care.

Patients may be transferred to other hospitals for further treatment in some cases, MOH added.