Foreign Workers Pay As Low As $5 At This Clinic

This story appeared in The New Paper on 4 February 2009:

Foreign workers pay as low as $5 at this clinic

THIS Geylang clinic's 'means testing' has helped foreign workers - they need to pay only $5 for consultation and medication.

Healthserve Community Clinic was set up in June 2007 to provide foreign workers with affordable medical care.

The clinic's director, Mr Tang Shin Yong, said its location was chosen because of the large number of foreign workers living there. 'Foreign workers contribute greatly to our economy, and we must learn how to accept them and help them integrate into our society,'he said.

Of the 652 patients the clinic has seen, 83 per cent were foreign workers.

Mr Tang said that, to date, no Singaporeans have abused the subsidised rates for foreign workers as the clinic conducts stringent background checks on patients.