Senior nurses in some Polyclinics are taking over from doctors in treating chronically ill patients to allow doctors to deal with more serious cases.
These senior nurses are reported to check on patients with asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
These patients instead of seeing a doctor are seeing a senior nurse on one visit and a doctor on the next visit. Reason ? save waiting time and cost.
The average waiting time to see a senior nurse is only 20 minutes and costs $6.00. Whereas waiting time to see a doctor is 60 minutes and costs $9.00.
Another reason ? Patients can spent 20 minutes consulting a senior nurse and doctors only has 10 minutes for each patient.
This report is very amusing. Each time a patient goes to the Polyclinic, are they actually talking / consulting a Medical Doctor or simply a Nurse ?
