Managing Coronavirus and Living in Singapore

The Novel Coronavirus seems to be the most popular topic in Singapore in the last couple of weeks. As we all know, it started in Wuhan, China and has since spread to many countries.  Singapore and Japan has reported the most number of cases outside of China. This could be due to the fact that Singapore and Japan has done the most testing. In other words, if you don’t test, you won’t find any cases.  The test kit for this virus is also not readily available in many countries.

This is a relatively new virus.  We know that some of the patients in Singapore were tested a few times before the virus was picked up.  Many of the patients who were tested positive also did not have any fever at that point in time.  Most patient have symptoms which are similar to the common flu.  At this point in time, this virus seems to be contagious but not as lethal as SARS.

I have friends all over the world asking about what the situation is like in Singapore.  So I thought I will share how my team and I continue to provide surgical care to our patients in this environment.

My clinic staff and I still attend to the clinic and hospital patients everyday. We routinely practice strict infection control even before this  coronavirus came into existence.  What this means is that we should practice hand washing before and after seeing each patient.  This is basic infection control which is taught in all hospitals and medical schools.  It has been shown again and again that the simple act of hand washing reduces the spread of infection.

Temperature taking and wearing a face mask is what we have added to our practice.  As from today, in our medical centre, all personnel who enters the building have their temperatures taken.  Wearing a face mask is compulsory (as per the Singapore Ministry of Health guidelines) when we review patients in the hospital and clinics.

Surgery and endoscopy is carried out as per our routine practice.  Protective attire and mask have always been used so there is nothing new.  Patients who needs surgery are still operated on and managed in the hospital and day surgery wards.

Outside the hospital and clinics, we don’t usually wear a mask unless we are unwell.  I have seen many people wearing face masks in the streets.  If a person has flu like symptoms, wearing a mask can prevent some water droplets from spreading into the environment when they cough or sneeze.  For a healthy person, wearing a normal face mask does not offer much protection in general.  In other words, if you are unwell, please wear a mask so that it won’t affect others around you.

My team and I still go out for lunches and coffee.  We are not hiding at home or in our clinics being paranoid about being infected by this virus.  We do take care of basic hygiene such as hand washing and routinely use hand sanitisers. We do look after ourselves so that we can continue to provide good surgical care to our patients.

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