A long waiting list and a long wait between appointments are some of the gripes patients have with specialist outpatient clinics in public hospitals.

With the large number of patients every day, public hospitals are often overstretched.

Since the private healthcare sector here is growing, perhaps more can be done to tap its resources.

For instance, Raffles Hospital's emergency department receives non-critical cases from Singapore Civil Defence Force ambulances.

Perhaps subsidies could also be provided to patients who have been referred from a government restructured hospital to a private setting.

Jacelyn Chia Yee Fang, 20

Undergraduate Year 1