NURSE clinicians are taking over from doctors, treating chronically ill patients, and freeing them up to deal with more serious cases in some polyclinics.
SingHealth Polyclinics began rolling out this programme, in phases, to its nine polyclinics here more than a year ago.
The programme also aims to help patients better manage their conditions, and to offer more challenging careers for nurses.
The nurse clinicians are senior nurses, who are trained further with six sessions on chronic diseases, and sitting in with doctors to get hands-on practice in attending to patients.
They see patients suffering from asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, whose conditions are stable and do not need adjustments to their medication.
Instead of being seen by a doctor for each visit - usually every three months - these patients now see a doctor on one visit, and a nurse clinician on the next.
But if the patient becomes unwell, the nurse can refer the patient to the doctor, who will attend to him on the same day.
Seeing a nurse saves waiting time and money, said Ms Jasmine Heng, a nurse clinician from Pasir Ris Polyclinic.
Patients wait about 20 minutes on average to see a nurse clinician and pay $6, instead of waiting an hour and paying $9.
Each consultation with the nurse clinician also lasts longer than that with the doctor - about 20 instead of 10 minutes.
The nurse clinician has more time to spend on counselling the patient, and helping them set personal goals and devising ways to reach these, Ms Heng said.
Read the full report in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
