The government’s role is to provide the best medical services to the public. However, not everyone needs these services since they can afford out-of-pocket medical services. Therefore, the government sponsors or builds public or restructured medical facilities to offer healthcare benefits to the remaining population.
Before visiting these hospitals, there are certain things you must know about the services offered, meeting medical costs, and qualifications for the services. This article covers certain things you need to know about such hospitals.
1. What are restructured hospitals, and why do they exist?
Restructured hospitals are state or federal government-owned medical facilities. Services offered in these hospitals are generally available to anyone who needs medical care. They are created for the public but serve the needs of low and middle-income citizens who may not have the capital to meet medical expenses in private hospitals. You can enjoy subsidized medical costs in these hospitals.
Before you access the medical benefits offered by these hospitals, you need to meet specific societal criteria. Your income level should be below certain standards meaning meeting the medical and healthcare bills can be expensive in the long run. In countries like Singapore, the government offers medical subsidies for the low and middle-income population to access medical services from these facilities.
2. Services offered at restructured hospitals
The restructured hospitals offer various services. The services aim to boost healthcare delivery and ensure a generally healthy society. They majorly focus on preventive care services. It includes community services such as vaccination, education, and healthcare awareness to reduce disease prevalence in society. The primary goal behind these services is to reduce the population visiting hospitals by ensuring good hygiene.
They offer emergency and ambulatory services for people with severe conditions. Some emergencies include surgeries, maternity services, and other admissions for those in accidents and critical conditions.
Despite offering critical services, only a few provide specialty services such as dental and optical services. Most focus on standards of medical care needs. You must visit a private hospital to get quality dental and optical services.
These also do not offer certain surgeries, such as corrective or plastic surgeries. You can get these surgeries from private facilities. Instead, restructured hospitals offer other complex surgeries such as organ transplants, delicate neurosurgeries, heart surgeries, etc.
Some restructured hospitals offer therapy and recovery services. You can seek therapy services when healing from bone-related injuries and accidents. Some of them also provide mental health services. You can book an appointment with psychologists in these facilities. You can also get in-patient and outpatient services depending on your condition.
3. Paying for medical expenses
Most restructured hospitals offer free medical services to the patients; however, you have to pay specific amounts for a few services. The services may not entirely be free since you have to pay for the appointment and sometimes consultancy.
The government or the state services provide medical bills, in-patient services, and drugs. However, there are certain services that you have to pay for. For instance, you must pay for specific medications, especially those unavailable in the hospital’s pharmacies. These pharmacies tend to stock only the necessary drugs. Hence other medications are prescribed for you to buy from other facilities.
The free medical services also cover specific treatment processes and apply up to certain limits of surgery costs. They will cover the in-patient costs for a particular duration of the same surgery. You have to pay other bills. You can subscribe to other medical payment programs to pay the other bills not covered by the government.
You can also subscribe to different co-insurance programs where the private insurer will charge you a lower premium under the conditions that they pay additional costs whenever you visit the restructured hospitals.
4. How to select the best-restructured hospital?
There are many restructured hospitals; however, not all will offer the desired services. Therefore, you need to consider the quality of the services provided before visiting any hospital. These hospitals are mostly congested with long queues and long appointment lists. You can visit one in a location with a low population density to have faster access to medical services.
In case of any emergency, you should visit one close to you since they offer special considerations for medical emergencies. Since they are state-owned, some have better facilities than others. They also benefit from charitable donations to set up special facilities; hence you need to check the nature of the facilities, especially if you have special needs.
5. Can you be a “private patient” in restructured hospitals?
You can visit public hospitals even when you do not qualify for the free medical services. When you visit the facilities, you should cover all the medical expenses. There are no exemptions. You can use the therapy facilities, consult the doctors, and visit the pharmacies at your cost. They also partner with private insurance companies to enable anyone to access medical services in these facilities. They also have referral programs if they cannot handle your medical condition effectively.
Conclusion
Restructured hospitals offer the best medical services to society’s low and middle-income earners. They do not provide certain services, such as cosmetic surgery, dental and optical services, etc. So, before visiting these facilities, ensure you qualify for the services and perhaps have a co-insurance program to meet other medical costs.