2021-07-20 – Tuesday
Selamat Hari Raya Haji 2021!
The celebration mood is simply not there.
Today meal:
- Lunch: Blue Pea Nasi Lemak With Chicken Wing
I was surprised to learn that on Food Panda, we can order a variety of food from the different stalls for the Kopitiam near our place. The Nasi Lemak is not bad, but the chicken wing is coated with a thick layer of flour which is not to my liking.
- Dinner: Ramen Egg, Honey Chicken Wing, Spinach with Chestnut and Prawn roll
The ramen egg is sort of a failure so I let the Ongs eat the Honey Chicken Wing and I clear most of the eggs. Not sure what could be the main reason, keeping the eggs for too long before I boil them? Poke the eggs on the wrong side of the egg? Or simply didn’t stir enough during the boiling process.
The covid cases had gone up again and we are back to Phase 2 heighten alert from 22th July onwards. This means, no dining out, Goodbye, my Hi-Tea! And also, no swimming lesson for Kpo Kia. Guess I really need to enroll Kpo Kia to online classes soon.
Due to the confusing Phase that switched every other day, I will stop tagging my blog post by phase and day.
Singapore General Hospital and Debt Collector Company
Kpo Kia papa passed me a letter after he went out for a jog. I was about to throw it away as it looks like some promotion envelop, except it’s with my full name on it. Kpo Kia papa asked me to read the content before I throw it away, so I did. To my surprise, it is a ‘reminder’ letter from Singapore General Hospital (SGH), sent from a ‘legal ah long’ aka debt collector company. I was quite angry for them sending me such a letter from the debt collector instead of sending me a proper reminder letter using an SGH envelop. Initially, I wanted to ignore the letter till they proceed with further action. Till curiosity got into me and I googled about this. Apparently, it is stated on SGH bills that they might engage a debt collector company to ‘collect’ the bills owed to them. Once it’s handle by these debt collector companies, I will be subjected to interests charged by the company.
I was like ‘HELLO! I only owed you SGD$78! What makes you think I will not pay, and you need to get a legal ah long to crawl the amount back from me?!’. I was complaining to friends the I did not receive any reminder letters or emails from SGH. After reading the following article, I finally realised the bill & reminder alert, was notified to me via SMS:
- SingHealth allegedly works with ‘collection agencies’ for overdue payment
- SGH SENT DEBT COLLECTOR TO COLLECT $147 FROM MY DECEASED FAMILY MEMBERS
- Do SingHealth institutions allow credit companies to hound you for unpaid bills?
Disappointment
OMG! I usually don’t read SMS as there are too many spam messages. I only look out for the SMS like OTPs and the last time I pay attention to MOH SMS, it’s because of my unlucky close proximity with a confirmed case in Changi Airport T3. Since I missed out on the SMS, there is no way I will know that the bill mentioned anything about the debt collector!
Sigh. I am so disappointed with Singapore. SGH, as a government hospital, is running like a private company. Is money their only top priority? Why can’t they send me a reminder letter or email, instead of getting a debt collector to collect $78 from me? Doesn’t this cost them more? I feel like living in the 60s, asked for a protection fee from the SGH – a government hospital.
More whining:
- After some checking, I finally realized SGH charges the patient $5+ if they want to request an outstanding bill in paper form.
- And if SGH can send me 3 SMSs to remind me to attend a medical appointment, why can’t they just send me 3 SMSs for the bill (not as if I read, as mentioned, I DON’T READ SMS UNLESS I’m expecting some alert, e.g. OTP PIN.
- When I went for my first medical check-up, I was asked to leave without any instruction. Assume it works like other medical institutions, I went home waiting for them to mail me the report, or call me if there is any abnormality. After waiting for almost 5 months, Kpo Kia papa keeps bugging me to make an appointment, that’s when I realised I need to call for an appointment as no one else is supposed to handle my report other than the doctor. =.=”
How low standard can Singapore medical institutes get? Although I greatly appreciate the medical staff for their commitment in treating the COVID-19 patience, I did encounter quite a few bad experiences with the hospitals.
Outstanding tasks for July 2021:
- Organising of 2021 photos
