On March 9, at about 7pm, my wife was admitted to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) under my pension scheme, by which she has to pay only 50 per cent of the ward charges.

The following morning, at about 8.30am, the doctor informed her that she would be discharged.

The discharge papers were signed at about 11.30am, and we left soon after.

However, the ward charges in the hospital bill appeared to be for two days. When I asked an administrative officer why the charge was for two days when my wife had stayed in the ward for less than 24 hours, he assured me that an adjustment would be made to the bill after he had received more information from the ward concerned.

While waiting for the revised bill, I took a closer look at the discharge note and realised that the billing at SGH was based on dates, rather than the hours spent there.

The time of admission and discharge were completely absent from the bill.

I would like to clarify with the Ministry of Health and SGH whether this way of calculating ward charges - bloating the medical bill by adding an extra day's charge to the bill based on dates rather than time spent in the ward - is ethical.

Ling Diung Kwong