In his letter, Mr Lee Cheow Teck commented that he was unable to see an eye doctor when he visited the Singapore National Eye Centre recently (Unable to see doctor at eye centre; Dec 15).

Mr Lee called on Dec 11 requesting a walk-in appointment on the same day. His original appointment was scheduled for April next year.

Our call centre staff explained to him that as we already had a high number of patients with appointments that day, all walk-in patients would have to be triaged to ascertain if they had urgent eye conditions that needed to be seen by a doctor at the clinic on the same day.

When Mr Lee arrived later that morning, the clinic was already busy with patients. He was then triaged by a staff nurse. The triage report was reviewed by the consultant in charge of the clinic and Mr Lee's condition was deemed to be non-urgent.

The staff nurse recommended lubricating eye drops that were available at the centre's pharmacy and also assisted to bring forward Mr Lee's next appointment by two months to February.

Our staff from the Office of Patient Experience have since contacted Mr Lee to inquire about his eye condition and to address his feedback.

We are pleased to note that Mr Lee's eye condition has improved with the use of the lubricating eye drops.

Our staff also took the opportunity to further explain to him our triage process. We would like to assure our patients and the public that all walk-in patients are carefully triaged and if assessed with urgent eye conditions, will be seen by our eye doctors and provided with appropriate treatment.

Charity Wai (Ms)

Chief Operating Officer

Singapore National Eye Centre