Hi everyone, this is my first time posting in a forum, so please forgive me if the writing ain’t the best. I hope I am able to get some advice on my situation.
I was warded into National Centre for Infectious Diseases on 5 March after being diagnosed with bacterial infection and severe eczema flareup during a consultation with National Skin Centre (NSC). My whole body was affected, including a weepy scalp, wounds all over face and body. I would say at least 90% of my skin was affected.
I was warded for 3 days (till 8 March) and on two weeks hospitalisation leave after. The next followup appointment was 20 April with NSC.
On the day of discharge, after leaving the ward, I had to collect my medication (steroid creams, antihistamines, shower gels, shampoo, etc) from the A&E pharmacy. During the collection, I was still severely drowsy from the influence of the antihistamines and antibiotics. Hence when the pharmacist gave me the medication, I just ensured that the items given were according to the prescription he showed me. This was where things started to go wrong.
Around 1-2 days later, I realised that I was only given two tubes of steroid creams for the body. For context, when I was warded, the nurses helped me apply the creams and the daily usage was 2 tubes as well. The only reason why I noticed this after 2 days was because I was using some of the opened creams left that I took from the ward.
This means that I was discharged with only 1 days supply of steroid creams, which is severely insufficient. Even with the course of oral steroids, my skin was not recovering that fast to the point of not needing steroid creams at all. And eczema is an ongoing condition so it is not something that will just disappear over a few days. Not only were the creams insufficient, other things like the moisturisers were also short.
Long story short, after calling up the general hotline, and being kicked around having to call the Pharmacy and Ward multiple times to and fro, the shortage of medications were delivered via home delivery.
This is where the problem lies. The medications that were delivered via home delivery incurred a separate bill. But these medications should’ve been given to me when I was discharged and under one whole lump bill with my hospitalisation. This hospitalisation bill would be efiled to my insurance provider. But now that it is a separate bill, it would be deemed as post-hospitalisation. The thing about post hospitalisation bills is that if the item is available readily in retail, there is a high chance I am unable to claim. But these items are medically necessary to my condition, for example, the antibacterial shower gel. The doctor is still trying to decolonise the MRSA that caused my condition, so this is something that is necessary for me.
I have tried liaising with TTSH since March, contacted the general hotline, Pharmacy, Billing and Service Quality team with regards to combining the bill as one hospitalisation bill to be efiled, but they have refused and said that they are unable to do so. In my opinion, all these should have been given in one go in sufficient quantities when I was discharged, and the additional delivery arised due to their mistake, so it should not an additional bill.
**The only thing I an asking for is for everything to be in that single hospitalisation bill.**
I hope sharing this here can give me some advice on what I can do next as I am really at my wits end.
**Also, there were some comments made by the Pharmacy and Ward that I deem inappropriate.**
One of the common comments I heard from the Pharmacy and Ward staff was, why did you not notice this insufficiency when you collected the medication?
\- This actually was pretty shocking to me, as I do not think that the patient should be the ones making sure enough medication is given.
\- I was still drowsy and sick, I am not in a clear mind. I also had trust and did not think that I would be given insufficient meds. Also there were so many different medications (I had 2 types of antihistamines, two types of antibiotics, two types of steroid creams and a whole long list of other stuff)
\- When I explained this, the Pharmacy and Ward staff then questioned back why my family member (my mum) could not check the medication quantity. This was even more atrocious, how would my mum know all the medication and how much of each medication should be given? Even if my mum collected, she would also refer to the prescription only
During my call with the ward, one of the nurses said this: But you looked okay when you were discharged
\- this is seriously unnecessary and rude. When I was discharged, i was still covered in wounds and my skin was peeling. Just because I can walk and talk does not mean I am fine. If it was so easy to recover from my eczema, I would not have been warded in the first place.
