The recent announcement of a S$52,000 monthly rental for a new clinic set to open in Tampines has sparked heated discussions about the rising cost of commercial rentals in Singapore.
Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung also expressed his dismay at the record-high rental bid for the clinic.
This news “cast such a spotlight on our healthcare system that even the Health Minister had to speak out,” Red Dot United’s (RDU’s) secretary-general Ravi Philemon said in a Facebook post on Thursday (5 June).
In the post, he also left a critique of the media’s coverage of the issue — stating that it has only focused on the “dollar amount and the identity of the winning bidder”, rather than addressing the broader issues underlying the exorbitant rental costs.
Source: Ravi Philemon on Facebook
Apart from criticising the lack of analytical reporting, Mr Philemon said that there was “no scrutiny of the tender process, and no investigation into whether the system was serving the public good”.
He also mentioned that there were no quotes from residents, no views from healthcare workers, and no attempt to place the story in the broader context of healthcare affordability.
It was not until Mr Ong responded, that the media picked up the story.
“The media picked it up from there, not the other way around,” said Mr Philemon.
Source: Ong Ye Kung on Facebook
He described the state of journalism as “worrying”, adding that the media often treats “systemic issues as footnotes instead of frontlines”.
Mr Philemon emphasised that the public is left without accountability when journalism “merely echoes what officials say”.
“Key questions go unasked. Power goes unchallenged,” he stated.
While the media provides headlines and numbers, he argued that there is a lack of focus on the “deeper structural problems driving them”.
Explaining why he has been writing more of such long-form pieces online since the General Election, Mr Philemon bluntly said: “The media has failed”.
“It amplifies what’s sensational. It lifts what’s convenient,” he added, criticising what he sees as the media’s tendency to favour the incumbent.
“If it takes 2,000 words to explain something properly, then that’s what it takes.”
In response to the commotion stirred by the clinic’s exorbitant rental bid, Mr Ong reminded the public that the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Housing Development Board (HDB) have launched a new tender approach for GP clinics at Bartley Beacon.
With the introduction of the Price-Quality evaluation Model (PQM), the competitive focus can be shifted away from rental rates.
Responding to this, Mr Philemon argued that if healthcare space in Singapore is to be treated as a public good, we need “more than new models and tender scorecards”.
“We need a government willing to govern with values, not just spreadsheets,” he wrote.
“A system that prioritises access over revenue. A country where healthcare space is not just a commodity.”
Also read: Ong Ye Kung ‘dismayed’ by S$52K rental bid for Tampines clinic, warns of higher healthcare costs
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Featured image adapted from I-Health Medical Clinic on Facebook and Ravi Philemon on Facebook.