How to find and treat the thousands with undiagnosed chronic conditions

Many suffer from diabetes, hypertension and high lipids but don't know it.

- Chia Kee Seng

Residents getting their blood sugar levels tested at a health event. The large number of patients suffering from diabetes, hypertension and high lipids drives up healthcare costs when they run into complications. Singapore's three public healthcare clusters must act as one integrated system to manage these patients, says the writer.

(ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG)

A recent article in The Straits Times on kidney failure vividly captured not only the suffering of patients undergoing dialysis, but also highlighted a sobering fact: that “half the kidney disease cases in Singapore could have been prevented”.

According to the Singapore Renal Registry Annual Report 2023, there are 10,837 Singaporeans living with kidney failure, the final stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD5). The economic burden to the country is estimated to run into hundreds of millions annually.

This burden would have been considerably lower - and the suffering of patients greatly reduced if we had managed to prevent half these cases. Why aren't we doing so and what can we do better?

First, let us understand the root of the problem. It is common to attribute the growing number of patients with catastrophic noncommunicable diseases such as kidney failure, heart disease, stroke and cancer, to the inevitable consequences of an ageing population.

While ageing does play a role, this defeatist mindset blinds us to a harder truth: the number of patients with such diseases is rising too sharply in Singapore, even after factoring in the effects of ageing.