October 1, 2019

The International Day for Older Persons is celebrated worldwide on October 1st to raise awareness about the issues affecting the elderly and acknowledge their contribution to society. The day’s 2015 theme, “Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment”, ties in well with “Geographical Accessibility of Community Health Assist Scheme General Practitioners for the Elderly Population in Singapore: A Case Study on the Elderly Living in Housing Development Board Flats”, an article co-authored by Dr Cao Kai, Ms Deborah Ong (both from NUS Geography) and former NUS Social Work faculty member A/P Marcus Chiu (City University of Hong Kong) published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2018.

The researchers sought to analyse the geographical accessibility of the Community Health Assist Scheme for General Practitioners (CHAS GPs) for the elderly in Singapore. They focused on the elderly living in Housing Development Board (HDB) flats who would benefit more from CHAS subsidies and generated maps that showed hot spots (areas with many CHAS GPs) as well as crucially identifying cold spots (areas with few CHAS GPs).

One of their salient findings revealed that young housing estates with many Build-To-Order (BTO) flats like Punggol were identified as cold spots. This has implications for its elderly residents, who may choose to avoid seeking medical attention due to the difficulty of getting to CHAS GPs. Looking forward, the authors urged for a more balanced town planning strategy to be employed so that one group’s needs is not prioritized over another’s.

Read the article here: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/9/1988