More healthcare workers deployed to cope with more patients at KKH Children's Emergency

SINGAPORE: More nurses and healthcare staff from other disciplines at KK Women's and Children's Hospital have been deployed to the Children's Emergency to cope with an increase in number of patients. 

Responding to CNA's queries, the hospital's CEO Alex Sia said that most of the patients seen at the Children's Emergency do not need emergency care. 

"Of the COVID-19 patients who were seen in Children's Emergency, less than 5 per cent were admitted (as reported by the Ministry of Health)," said Professor Sia.

"These have also resulted in more healthcare workers being deployed to attend to the patients, clinically and administratively, along with longer-than-usual wait times at Children’s Emergency." 

Apart from deploying more nurses and healthcare staff from other disciplines to support the increased load, "infrastructural modifications" and "workflow adjustments" were also made. This is to ensure staff can attend to patients and caregivers in a safe and conducive environment. 

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS ON SURGE IN PATIENT NUMBERS

Several Instagram posts on an account named sgnightingales had pointed out the surge in patient numbers at the Children's Emergency at KKH. 

One post described how a parent was "turned away" by three clinics and told to go to KKH for their child's COVID-19 swab tests. 

Professor Sia said it is a "challenging time" for everyone and thanked the staff who have "kindly taken on the extra work", as well as their families for their "unwavering support". 

"We continue to seek the understanding from the public that priority is always given based on severity of patients’ condition," he added. 

Parents and caregivers can also help the hospital to alleviate the crunch, said Professor Sia. For instance, they can follow the steps in this guide to assess if they need to bring their COVID-19 positive child to the emergency department. 

For non-emergencies, caregivers are encouraged to visit the KKH Urgent Paediatric Advice Line (U-PAL) for help with the most common childhood ailments, including fever, coughing, vomiting, diarrhoea, trauma, rashes, as well as COVID-19.