ALICIA AU YONG HUI QI

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

SingHealth Polyclinics provides primary healthcare services and plays an integral role in empowering patients, their families and communities to take charge of their health and wellness by delivering seamless, person-centred and preventive healthcare. SingHealth Polyclinics is a part of Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) which offers over 40 clinical specialties through a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, community hospitals and polyclinics.

OUR TASKS

The aim of our project is to help our group better understand the importance and the role of polyclinics in Singapore’s healthcare system. We were tasked to find out about why polyclinics were built, the type of services that are made available to the public and the costs of these services. We were also tasked to gather some interesting stories and memorable experiences from the staff working at the polyclinics. We also needed to come up with a few suggestions to help create an enhanced experience in the polyclinics. To be able to gather this information, our group set out to conduct interviews with both the staff and the patients and also doing research.

In order to put across this information to the public, we have decided to create:

A website
2 short video clips

THE PROCESS

To be able to fulfill our deliverables which are the website and 2 short clips, there are many steps that have to be taken.

Firstly, we conducted several interviews with the a few staff who all had at least 10 years of working experience in the healthcare sector. By doing so, we would be able to gain more insight about how things used to be like in the past such as how polyclinics used to operate and how the attitudes of the patients used to be. In addition, one of our tasks was to discover interesting stories shared by the staff and we figured that the staff with more years of experience would have many more memorable experiences to share with us. While conducting interviews, we would also be able to get a tour of the polyclinics so that we can get a rough idea of how things work behind the scenes in polyclinics.

Secondly, we conducted interviews with the patients so as to gain a better perspective of how the patients feel being at polyclinics, their experience and any inconveniences or issues faced. This allows us to gain feedback from the patients so that we can come up with suggestions based on the patients’ feedback and the inconveniences that they have faced.

Thirdly, we would have to do our own research to be able to find out more and gain more knowledge about polyclinics. These include the types and costs of the services at polyclinics, the reason why they are located in areas such as the heartlands, the type of demographic they were designed to serve and the overall healthcare plan of screening patients.

Fourthly, we would have to decide on our deliverables and start work on it. At the start, we had decided to film a documentary but due to filming restrictions and regulations at polyclinics, this proved to be difficult to accomplish. Hence, we decided on creating a website with 2 short video clips encompassed in it. Our initial step to this was to decide on what kind of content we would like to include in our website and video clips. Next, we would start on working on the layout for the website, then adding in the content. As for the video clips, we would have to come up with a general idea of what the clips would be, then we would start work on the script and sound effects for the video. Afterwards, we would source for resources to be used in our video clips.

Lastly, we would have to edit the video clips and retouch on the website to make it better. Editing of video clips included adding in the sound effects and subtitles.

OUR DELIVERABLE

We were able to create a website with 5 different tabs.

Website link: https://shp002.wixsite.com/acetjcians

"HOME" Page

The 1st tab is the Home page which displays a few pictures of how polyclinics roughly used to look like in the background

"OUR STORIES" Page

The 2nd tab is “Our Stories” which shows 3 interesting stories that were shared with us in the interviews. We re-enacted 2 of the stories and made them into short video clips with a short description.

"CONTACT US" Page

The 3rd tab is “Contact Us” which allows the public or visitors to the website to be able to easily find the locations of the various Singhealth Polyclinics. When the visitor to the website clicks on the area of the polyclinic that they would like to go such as “Bedok”, it automatically redirects them to a Google Maps page in which they can get directions about how to go to the polyclinic.

"FAQs" Page

The 4th tab is “FAQs” which encompasses the questions such as the costs and type of services available, whether there are any subsidies provided, and whether they can receive full body check-ups. We also allow the visitor to the website gain some information about polyclinics such as the importance of polyclinics and how they are being positioned.

"FEEDBACK" Page

Lastly, the 5th tab is “Feedback”. This is a feedback form which allows a person to be able to give compliments or complains about the polyclinics. The person doing the form is able to rate the polyclinic out of 5 stars and also choose the specific polyclinic that they are complimenting or complaining about. This allows us to be able to better work on the complains by knowing exactly which polyclinic the complaint was made about.

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE / SKILLS LEARNT

The three things that I have gained from this programme are learning that there are many steps and processes behind the scenes in polyclinics that we often do not get to see, being able to adapt well and being flexible, and the importance of teamwork.

(Picture of my group at the medicine storage room in Outram Polyclinic)

Oftentimes when we visit the polyclinics as patients, we would always complain that the waiting time is very long. However, behind the scenes, we are able to see that there are many steps and processes to be taken which can make the waiting time longer. For example, at the Pharmacy area of the polyclinics, the staff would have to pack the medication according to the prescription. As there are many medications with similar looking names or similar sounding names, the staff have to check and make sure that they gave the correct medication. Furthermore, the staff would also need to check if they gave the correct dosage to the patients as some medications when given in the wrong dosage can be dangerous. Another example is during our interview, when one of the staff said that some patients may have more conditions and symptoms which can take longer to treat or diagnose. Furthermore, the staff have to make sure their hands are properly cleaned and washed before coming in contact with the patients.

One skill that I had learnt is also being able to adapt well to changes and being flexible when unforeseen circumstances occur. Our initial plan was to deliver a documentary video however, due to the strict filming regulations and restrictions at polyclinics, we were able to be flexible to change our plans to creating a website and filming short video clips. As for our filming, we had planned to film it in the setting of polyclinics at Pasir Ris Polyclinic, however due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, we were unable to go back to the polyclinic to continue our filming. Hence, we were able to improvise and adapt well to the changes by filming it on school grounds. We tried to improvise by rearranging the chairs and tables to make it look like the setting of a polyclinic.

Another skill that I had learnt is the importance of teamwork. Throughout this 1 month, our group was able to split our tasks such that we were able to fulfill the goals that we had set for each week. By splitting the workload, it also ensures that each group member is able to contribute to the end result. Having good teamwork skills also enables us to communicate with each other easily and cooperate with each other. This had allowed us to complete our tasks smoothly. With our teamwork, we also could resolve any problems and mishaps that came our way together.

INTERESTING ASPECTS

An interesting aspect that I have discovered is that polyclinics and the attitudes of patients have changed a lot throughout the years. In the past, polyclinics did not have advanced technology and medical equipment. Medications used to come in loose tablets instead of them coming in strips of about 10 tablets. There were also not many different types of medications in the past as compared to now. For example, there used to only be 1 type of medication for diabetic patients, but now, there are many various types of medications that diabetic patients need to take. In addition, records in polyclinics such as conditions, diagnosis and prescription of patients were all hand written on paper, as compared to now, all records are typed out and things are made more automatic. The attitude of patients has also changed as patients used to be less demanding and more patient in the past. Nowadays, some patients will also try to google their symptoms online and use limited knowledge to try to challenge the staff words.

Another interesting aspect is that some patients will actually try to show their appreciation to the staff by giving them gifts. These gifts include things such as chocolates and appreciation cards. However, if the gifts that are given to the staff by the patients are over a certain monetary value, these items would have to be donated to the organisation. However, if they are perishable items such as food items, they would be allowed to share it with the other staff in the polyclinics.

TAKEAWAY FOR LIFE

One takeaway for life that I can take from this WOW! Programme would be that there are still a lot of steps and processes going on behind the scenes as compared to what is always seen on the surface. We are often only showed what is on the surface, and sometimes what is on the surface that is being presented to us may not be a good thing, however, I understood that there may be many other factors that contributed to what is on the surface and that behind the scenes, there may still be a lot of hard work and effort involved.

(A picture of my group with our external mentor, Dr Peter Moey and 2 other staff at Outram Polyclinic)