Hi,
I just moved to Singapore two months ago and I took my 3 year old daughter to a private clinic for the first time. The doctor made a diagnosis of her condition, which is allergic rhinitis, and asked me to wait outside. then the assistants handed me a bill and a bunch of medicines. A couple of items included are over the counter medicine, and one of them I already bought, tried it on our daughter for decongesting her sinius, found it not very effective and my daughter did not like it. But since it was included in the doctor's prescription, I did not want to make a fuss and paid for it anyway. Then there was a cough medicine. When the doctor asked whether she coughs, I said only a little. I don't think we would give her the cough medicine since she does not cough much. We try not to use medicine unless very necessary. My question is, should I have returned the medicine to the clinic and ask them to take out the charges? would they have allowed this? i.e. do patients have a say on what to pay for? In the Philippines, they use the US system, the doctors only prescribe, and the patients purchase medicine from separate pharmacies. So it was usual for doctors to say, 'if you already have this, no need to buy'. In Hong Kong, the system is similar to Singapore, but the medicine can be generic, or taken from a large bottle in the doctor's pharmacy, since the fee is inclusive of the medicine. Here, consultation fee is separate from the medicine, and the doctor's pharmacy gives you whatever the doctor prescribes, right?
I just moved to Singapore two months ago and I took my 3 year old daughter to a private clinic for the first time. The doctor made a diagnosis of her condition, which is allergic rhinitis, and asked me to wait outside. then the assistants handed me a bill and a bunch of medicines. A couple of items included are over the counter medicine, and one of them I already bought, tried it on our daughter for decongesting her sinius, found it not very effective and my daughter did not like it. But since it was included in the doctor's prescription, I did not want to make a fuss and paid for it anyway. Then there was a cough medicine. When the doctor asked whether she coughs, I said only a little. I don't think we would give her the cough medicine since she does not cough much. We try not to use medicine unless very necessary. My question is, should I have returned the medicine to the clinic and ask them to take out the charges? would they have allowed this? i.e. do patients have a say on what to pay for? In the Philippines, they use the US system, the doctors only prescribe, and the patients purchase medicine from separate pharmacies. So it was usual for doctors to say, 'if you already have this, no need to buy'. In Hong Kong, the system is similar to Singapore, but the medicine can be generic, or taken from a large bottle in the doctor's pharmacy, since the fee is inclusive of the medicine. Here, consultation fee is separate from the medicine, and the doctor's pharmacy gives you whatever the doctor prescribes, right?