MOH personnel mistaken for NEA Enforcers allegedly yelled at clinic staff and patients

On June 11, Singaporean Facebook user Channey Lim detailed an incident on her Facebook page about how some Enforcing Officers that she initially through were from NEA or the National Environment Agency. She later edited her Facebook post to reflect from an unknown source that the personnel were from the Ministry of Health, and that they were very rude to the clinic staff, and other patients when they had their “inspection.”

What happened at the clinic?

According to her Facebook post, she was waiting at a clinic on the morning of June 11 when Enforcing Officers who looked to be from NEA (but were later identified by Channey to be from MOH) burst into the clinic and began to reportedly ask people what they were doing in the clinic, and if they really had essential business.

The Facebook post mentioned that the men’s voices were quite loud, and when they asked the staff what the patients were doing there, the latter said that patient records were confidential and private.

When clinic staff told the Enforcers of this rule, the officers then replied that since he is allowed to see patient private information due to his position.

An argument then ensued as common knowledge was that only doctors, nurses, and patients could look at the confidential information, and the staff asked the officers to wait outside the clinic.

At this point, Channey said in her Facebook post that the clinic staff were allegedly insulted by the officers for not knowing how to do their job. The Enforcing Officers also asked for something known as a “statement” and expressed disdain to the staff for their alleged incompetence.

When the argument looked like it was not getting resolved, the staff said that they would speak to their management about the problem, to which the Enforcing Officer reportedly replied, “I am from the government (sic) , I will tell you what to do! You don’t need to check with your boss.”

When the staff insisted that they wait for their boss to come out, the officer allegedly would not relent.

A patient then allegedly tried to mediate the matter as the events were beginning to escalate with such a statement, but the Enforcing Officer had a similar response. The officer told the patient to sit down and that they would be spoken to later.

NEA: It wasn’t me

Since Channey initially tagged the officers from NEA, the agency responded to the post, saying that the persons who entered the clinic were not from their roster.

Their post said that clinics were not part of their purview. The said that the only places where their enforcers can exert authority was over hawker centres and markets.

They also said that you could identify their officers clearly through their lanyards and armbands.