True, Parkway Holdings, like all businesses, must try and maximise profit. But we are also living in a new, enlightened economy where the bottom line is not only financial responsibility, but environmental and social as well.

The implications of the company's winning bid of $1.25 billion - more than double that of the second- highest bid - and its plan to offer only A-class single- room beds and better are obvious: It intends to cater only to the super-rich and its patients can expect to be charged supra-normal rates.

Yet, the payback for the company will be derived not only from the patients found by its new hospital, but from patients of its present stable of hospitals at Gleneagles, Mount Elizabeth and Eastshore.

Not all private hospital patients are super-rich. Not all patients admitted to the company's hospitals are wealthy. Many are ordinary Singaporeans who patronise these hospitals because the specialists with whom they have built a relationship over a period of time now practise there.

These patients are mostly middle-income earners who scrimp and save to afford treatment at Parkway's hospitals.

Parkway Holdings should reconsider its 'single-room only' policy for the Novena hospital. Having double- and four-bedder rooms, like other hospitals, will make health care more affordable and increase choices for our patients.

There should also be such provisions in the tender process to allow more Singaporeans the chance to afford private patient care and help relieve the pressure on public and restructured hospitals.

Dr Huang Shoou Chyuan