Clinical Guidelines

19 January 2015

Question No. 373

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef
MP for Marine Parade GRC

Question:

To ask the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will be embarking on stricter regulations for certain testing and management of clinical conditions in the private practice sector, from primary to tertiary care, along the lines of published clinical guidelines set out in the Ministry's publications.

Answer:

1.       The Ministry of Health (MOH) has been publishing clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) since 1998.  Many of these CPGs have been focused on ensuring primary care providers are updated on the current best practice in common conditions that they encounter, an example being the “MOH CPG on Diabetes Mellitus” published in March 2014.

2.       There have also been CPGs to guide providers in hospital care, an example being the “MOH CPG on the use of intravenous recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator (rTPA) in Ischaemic Stroke Patients”, aimed at providing guidance on timely initiation of this therapy in centres with appropriate facilities and expertise.

3.       While the main aim of MOH’s CPG programme has been to provide guidance to both public and private sector doctors on appropriate management of disease conditions, CPGs can also be used to guide the development of clinical programmes and audits.  Examples of these were the CPGs related to the management of chronic diseases.  Recommended clinical care components for the Medisave for Chronic Disease Management Programme were extracted from the relevant chronic disease CPGs and formed the basis for evaluation of appropriate practice thereafter.

4.       Going forward, MOH will continue to strengthen its CPG framework and other measures to ensure that patients receive appropriate care and avoid over-consumption.