SINGAPORE - Ten years after it last revised its Accident and Emergency (A&E) charges, Changi General Hospital (CGH) has become the latest public hospital to up such fees.

Following in the wake of earlier hikes by the National University Hospital and Alexandra Hospital, CGH this month increased its A&E attendance fee by $10 — or 15 per cent — to $75. Even so, the hospital’s A&E charges are one of the lowest across public hospitals, said a spokesperson.

CGH also raised inpatient fees for the first time in seven years. For the B2 and C-class wards, the daily treatment fee went up by $1, representing a 6-to-10-per-cent increment.

The daily ward charge for B2 wards also rose by $1, or 2 per cent. Despite the coincidence of the timing, the hikes are not tied to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) increase that kicked in this month. The reason is rising operating costs, said the hospital.

On the other side of the island, the National University Hospital (NUH), too, recently raised some of its fees, attributing the need to increased operating costs.

From May 14, NUH increased ward charges for B2 and C-class wards by $2, increases of 4 and 8 per cent. The hospital’s last revision for both ward class charges was more than 10 years ago.

Both hospitals say GST will be continued to be absorbed for subsidised patients.

But the chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, Mdm Halimah Yacob, when contacted by TODAY, said: “‘Operational costs’ is a very broad term — what does it really include?”

Since late last year, public healthcare costs have been on the rise with various fee increases in hospital specialist outpatient clinics, polyclinics and inpatient wards.

From April, the Singapore General Hospital started charging $3 more for patients in class-B2 wards. C-class patients now pay $26 a day, up $1. Those were its first increases since 1993.

At NUH, the A&E fee was raised from $70 to $80 in January, its first such hike since 1997.

Over at Alexandra Hospital, A&E charges went up from $55 to $60 late last year, as did C-class ward charges — from $21 to $23 — and subsidised specialist outpatient clinic consultation rates, from $18 to $20.

KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital hiked ward treatment fees in February.

Hospitals can do better when it comes to being transparent about why they are charging more for various services, said Mdm Halimah.

“The most important thing is for hospitals to explain to the public why they are increasing fees, even if they are not passing on the 2-per-cent increase in GST to patients,” she said.

“I think one would be staff cost which over the years has been going up ... hospitals have to think of ways to control costs and enhance efficiency and productivity. And they should explain what they have done in this regard.”

CGH’s spokesperson said the hospital was “prudent in maintaining costs and has also been adopting many cost-saving measures”, such as those aimed at reducing energy and water consumption, and group purchase of equipment and drugs with SingHealth. “This has helped us to hold off fee increases for several years,” said the spokesperson.

Mdm Halimah said that while inpatient increments at CGH and NUH are marginal, she has received numerous pieces of feedback that A&E charges are, in general, too high — and were so even before the hikes.

“That increase will have more impact especially on Sundays and public holidays — when polyclinics and many general practitioners do not open — so that is one point one has to bear in mind,” she said. - TODAY/fa