Flu, that is ....
In case you've been on some other planets all these while or hiding in some cave (from loan sharks), the Swine Flu has become the talk all over town and possibly the world nowadays.
Brought Hero to NUH the other day for an appointment and as expected, they had already started those temperature checks and visitor registrations. From the looks of the way they run the whole operations, it seemed like a well-oiled machinary. I'm sure they've been briefed and drilled often thruout 'peacetime' to prepare for a rainy day like now. No doubt we're still free from Swine Flu, I've no doubt and totally agree with the Goverment that its a matter of sooner or later that we're hit too. By then, MOH's DORS (Disease Outbreak Response System, Page 9) should move up 1 more notch to Red. I doubt we will move to Black, hope not...
Seeing what the NUH folks are doing reminds me of the SARS days where upon reaching the entrance of the hospital, you'd have your temperature taken and if you're cleared, you'd be given a green sticker. Patients get another coloured sticker. If your temperature is considered high, you'd be quarantined to another room and have your temperature re-taken after a while to confirm the readings. Once confirmed, God knows where they'll sent you :p.
Recalling back during the SARS outbreak, (was working in a hotel back then) we were issued thermometers and had to take our temperature daily in the presence of the Security Officer and record the readings in a file according to our name. Visitors to the hotel also had to have their temperature taken at the entrance prior to entering the premises. Occupancy rates dropped from 80+% to 40+%. On a good day, you'd get 50%! All staff also had to take a designated amount of leave per month. I remembered taking about 20 over days in all over a 3-5mth period, wiping out all my annual leave and incurring some unpaid leave too. Some of my then-colleagues were receptive to the idea but I see it more like helping the company to stay afloat so as to keep us all our job. 1 good thing from this 'sticking thru with the company' was that when the crisis was over and occupancy started picking up again, they paid us back for those leave taken plus abit more as bonuses!
Not trying to sound propagandic here but I really feel that with experience from previous outbreaks (SARS, Bird-Flu, Dengue, etc), Singapore is able to learn from the lesson and refine the SOPs along the way. Even if we weren't hit, we'd still send our folks to the affected countries (after the outbreak, of course) and learn from them.
Once again, I must re-iterate that I feel very proud to be a Singaporean having seen our Front-Line folks swing into full gear and all ready at the 'touch of a button' by MOH.
Anyone still thinking of migration?
In case you've been on some other planets all these while or hiding in some cave (from loan sharks), the Swine Flu has become the talk all over town and possibly the world nowadays.
Brought Hero to NUH the other day for an appointment and as expected, they had already started those temperature checks and visitor registrations. From the looks of the way they run the whole operations, it seemed like a well-oiled machinary. I'm sure they've been briefed and drilled often thruout 'peacetime' to prepare for a rainy day like now. No doubt we're still free from Swine Flu, I've no doubt and totally agree with the Goverment that its a matter of sooner or later that we're hit too. By then, MOH's DORS (Disease Outbreak Response System, Page 9) should move up 1 more notch to Red. I doubt we will move to Black, hope not...
Seeing what the NUH folks are doing reminds me of the SARS days where upon reaching the entrance of the hospital, you'd have your temperature taken and if you're cleared, you'd be given a green sticker. Patients get another coloured sticker. If your temperature is considered high, you'd be quarantined to another room and have your temperature re-taken after a while to confirm the readings. Once confirmed, God knows where they'll sent you :p.
Recalling back during the SARS outbreak, (was working in a hotel back then) we were issued thermometers and had to take our temperature daily in the presence of the Security Officer and record the readings in a file according to our name. Visitors to the hotel also had to have their temperature taken at the entrance prior to entering the premises. Occupancy rates dropped from 80+% to 40+%. On a good day, you'd get 50%! All staff also had to take a designated amount of leave per month. I remembered taking about 20 over days in all over a 3-5mth period, wiping out all my annual leave and incurring some unpaid leave too. Some of my then-colleagues were receptive to the idea but I see it more like helping the company to stay afloat so as to keep us all our job. 1 good thing from this 'sticking thru with the company' was that when the crisis was over and occupancy started picking up again, they paid us back for those leave taken plus abit more as bonuses!
Not trying to sound propagandic here but I really feel that with experience from previous outbreaks (SARS, Bird-Flu, Dengue, etc), Singapore is able to learn from the lesson and refine the SOPs along the way. Even if we weren't hit, we'd still send our folks to the affected countries (after the outbreak, of course) and learn from them.
Once again, I must re-iterate that I feel very proud to be a Singaporean having seen our Front-Line folks swing into full gear and all ready at the 'touch of a button' by MOH.
Anyone still thinking of migration?
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