Debated in Parliament on 10 Jan 2017.
Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health for patients with mobility needs who are physically unable to visit the nearest polyclinic, what measures are available to arrange a subsidised medical assessment at home so that the patient can qualify for assistance from the Agency for Integrated Care, SG Enable and related agencies.
The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Health):Seniors with mobility difficulties can contact the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) to request an assessment by AIC's Community Care Assessment Team (ComCAT) at their homes. This can be done through AIC touch-points such as AICare Links at our acute hospitals, Singapore Silver Line and Singapore Silver Pages.
Once contacted, AIC will arrange for the ComCAT to visit the senior at his or her home to assess their eligibility for subsidies under the various schemes, such as the Seniors' Mobility and Enabling Fund (SMF).
As of end 2016, the ComCAT has responded to a total of 1,357 cases in the community.
We will continue to monitor the care needs in the community to ensure that our schemes and services are accessible to patients who require them.
Madam, I thank the Senior Minister of State for her answer. I have two supplementary questions.
Firstly, on my home visits to residents in Clementi, I have come across elderly residents with mobility needs who are seeking subsidised referrals to specialist clinics at our restructured hospitals, but because they are not mobile, they have difficulties going to the nearest polyclinic. So, I was wondering what options or recourse they may have to access the specialist clinics at our restructured hospitals.
Secondly, Mdm Speaker, I would like to ask whether the assessment made by AIC is routinely shared with other agencies, so as to minimise the need for elderly residents to have multiple assessments which may add to the paperwork and potential inconvenience.
I thank the Member for his supplementary questions. Firstly, with regard to elderly with mobility difficulties who may need referrals to subsidised care, they can contact AIC, or their care-giver can contact AIC, to arrange for home medical visits by MOH-subvented providers, where a doctor can visit them at the convenience of their home to assess their needs and, if necessary, provide them with the subsidised referral to see a specialist.
Such services are provided by various community organisations like Home Nursing Foundation, and eligible seniors can receive subsidies for this service. In fact, for these frail seniors, they can contact AIC for home medical and home nursing services, and doctors and nurses can provide care for them within the convenience of their homes. Seniors with mobility difficulties can also contact AIC to request for Medical Escort and Transport (MET) services, where the provider can escort and transport the senior for medical appointments, including at the polyclinics.
With regard to the second question about sharing of the results of the mobility and medical assessments, we note the requirement and the need to minimise such assessments as much as possible to reduce inconvenience, particularly for the frail elderly.
The medical and mobility assessments are shared and applied for eligibility assessment for similar schemes, as far as possible. For instance, AIC will allow the use of ElderShield assessments for similar schemes run by AIC, such as the Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) Grant, and the Pioneer Generation Disability Assistance Scheme (PioneerDAS).
However, as different schemes may have different eligibility criteria to ensure that we target the right group of beneficiaries, clients may in some instances, still need to undergo additional assessments for schemes with different or additional criteria. However, we are mindful of this and we will try to minimise this as much as possible. As Minister Tan Chuan-Jin had said, MOH and MSF work very closely together, so in instances, AIC and SG Enable, if need to, we will also share information on the medical and mobility assessments.
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