More than 900 Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPCs) will be given a one-off grant of $10,000 to support them in their efforts to care for patients, as well as defray any additional costs they may have incurred in the line of duty.
This, together with two other grants for such clinics, was announced yesterday by the multi-ministry task force tackling the spread of the coronavirus here.
PHPCs provide subsidised treatment, investigations and medication during outbreaks.
Yesterday, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, who co-chairs the task force, said that over 450,000 patients had benefited from such treatments at the PHPCs and polyclinics over the past four months.
Thanking the various healthcare institutions that had helped in the fight against Covid-19 here, he said that a one-time $10,000 grant would be given to each PHPC in recognition of the role they had played despite the challenging circumstances.
The grant is intended to support PHPCs as they care for patients, and defray additional costs that they might incur while doing so.
The Health Ministry will also be providing a one-time Swab and Send Home (Sash) start-up grant of $1,200 to PHPCs in the Sash programme to help defray their start-up costs. All PHPCs that come on board the Sash programme will be eligible for the grant, and can expect to receive the grant after about three months on the programme, with payments starting in September.
Finally, an assurance grant will be provided to PHPCs whose doctors contract Covid-19 and are placed under a quarantine order in the course of their work.
Eligible PHPCs will be given $500 per day for the duration of their doctor's recovery or quarantine period, allowing them to employ a locum and helping to cover any loss in revenue.
Mr Gan said: "We hope that these initiatives will help us reassure our GPs as they continue to take care of our Covid-19 patients.
"At an individual level, we can each play our part to prevent ourselves from getting infected and to keep one another safe.
"Let us all continue to be socially responsible, stay vigilant and not let our guard down."
