Saturday, January 24, 2009
My colleagues and I have been extremely tickled by the debates over the last few days. For those who may have missed it, it all started with a seemingly-innocent paragraph written by non other than the crown princess herself.
Read the article here. Of course, much of that statement was a totally untrue. I'm quite sure that if it were anyone else writing this, it would have amounted to slander. While it's true that prior to 2 Jan, TTSH didn't offer PCI ("ballooning" and stenting" of the heart) at night, do note the date of this article. What's more, I'm surprised that a generalised treatment was implied - not all patients are suitable for PCI, and indeed there may be some evidence that in fairly acute circumstances, thrombolysis (using medicine like recombinant tissue plasminogen activator) may be superior to PCI. In some large developed countries (no names here), thrombolysis is actually THE treatment of choice since a large majority of hospitals do not offer PCI. So yes, Singaporeans are spoilt. But the real sting was the accusation that there was no cardiologist on call. Erm. What utter rubbish. AFAIK, there is an interventional cardiologist on call each and every single night. It's true that they are not physically in hospital, but which consultant sleeps in on call, pray tell? I doubt very much that even I will get seen by a consultant if I were to be hospitalised for a stroke at night.
So, for the rest of it:
"TTSH clears up cardio issue"Oooh, and we are mentioned in the gossip too!!
"Doctors saved his life in 70 minutes"And then the rebuttal:
"Make an informed choice"But one rather alarming statement came when she mentioned "incoming SCDF chief" ... HMMM.
The reply from SCDF ..
Moral of the story?
1. Don't offend the crown princess, or your head will roll. And you will get replaced.
2. You can say a lot of things when you are royalty.
3. The royalty are allowed to be oblivious to what's going on with the commoners next door.
4. Don't go to TTSH when you have a heart attack, according to the Princess.
Wenky
6:27 AM
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