Sentomental journey

Hello again dear readers, especially my friend Steve who has just sent me an email slap reminding me of my duties.  Having produced three posts in swift succession a wee while ago I seem to have forgotten to put digit to keyboard since then. Sorry about that.
 So what's new or more to the point newish, given the time lapse.  Well here goes, in no particular order: Chris fell on the ice in France and hurt his leg, quite badly as it turns out.  He is on the mend but it seems to be taking a long time.  This got me thinking about healthcare systems and, since at least part of the purpose of this blog is to provide insight to my readers about Singapore, I thought I'd share some information about how healthcare works here.

There is both a public and a private health system in Singapore, as you would expect.  The most obvious difference between Singapore and the UK is that no medical service, even in the public system, is provided free of charge, although much of it is subsidised.  The other key difference is that you just walk into a clinic or self refer to the specialist of your choice, providing you or your insurance company is willing to pay, without going through a GP.  I suppose this is a function of the fact that nothing is free, so that people stop and think before incurring the costs of a specialist, whereas in the UK, if you are prepared to wait, the National Health Service will provide.  The Singapore government aims to ensure affordable healthcare within the public  system and there is a nationalized health insurance plan known as Medisave, funded by employer and employee payroll deductions.  

All in all, it's a pretty impressive system, and it was interesting that Chris paid the equivalent of  just 60 pounds for a private GP consultation (walk in, virtually no waiting), 2 X-rays of his ankle (again walk in with just a 15 minute wait) and a prescription.  Paying privately for all prescriptions, however, is no joke, and that can get pretty pricey, as we discovered in France this summer when the doctor prescribed an inhaler for Chris's asthma that cost the equivalent of a meal for two, with a decent bottle of  wine, in a nice restaurant!  But I digress.....

One of the lovely events of recent weeks was a visit by my sister, the lovely Alison and my niece, the equally lovely Claudia.  My sister had managed to sever her Achilles tendon (don't ask, it's too gruesome) and was on crutches, able only to hop, not putting any weight on the damaged leg.  I could empathise completely, having been in a similar situation a few years ago and I know how boring it is to be pretty much immobile, so I thought I would hire a wheelchair for the duration of her visit.  This proved surprisingly easy and the foldable chair - brand new and sporting a lovely green tartan fabric seat - was delivered with the minimum of fuss.  Claudia and I had great fun trying it out in the apartment, but it would have been even better - although a trifle extravagant to be fair - if we'd had two, so that we could race.  

Having the chair meant that we could get out and about pretty much as we pleased, including  taking a trip to Sentosa to go to Universal Studios.  This has been open for a couple of years, but it was my first visit.  We chose a weekday, which was a smart move, since it was relatively quiet and I hate queuing, but I hadn't realised that we had a secret weapon, in the form of the lovely Alison in her wheelchair.  I have to give top marks to the staff at Universal Studios for their courtesy and care.  Everywhere we went they ensured that she was as comfortable as possible, including directing us to the VIP line so that there was almost no queuing.  We took some great photos, but my favourite is this one of Alison and Woody Woodpecker.  

I'd never thought about Singapore before Alison's visit in terms of wheelchair access, but it is actually pretty well set up.  Most of the pavements have a slope to enable you to cross the road. more and more of the buses are wheelchair accessible.  We ended up using taxis for most of our travel though and the taxi drivers were, pretty much without exception, very helpful and thoughtful.  We made our traditional pilgrimage to the Jade restaurant at the Fullerton Hotel for their Dim Sum brunch and managed to consume several servings of our favourite wasabi prawns.  I'm including a photograph, with the deliberate intention of reminding the lovely Alison what she's missing.......  Time to diary that next trip to Singapore!