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SINGAPORE: Another 12,000 pulse oximeters will be distributed to migrant workers residing in dormitories, as part of new measures that take advantage of technology to strengthen monitoring of the health of these workers.
So far, about 8,000 of these medical kits have been delivered to migrant workers who tested positive for COVID-19, Human Resources Minister Josephine Teo said Sunday (May 10).
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READ: COVID-19: On-site care facilities in some bedrooms, designated spaces for recovered workers
Pulse oximeters are used to monitor the oxygen levels of people infected with COVID-19 and can help detect early signs of deteriorating health.
The provision of pulse oximeters will also allow workers to proactively monitor their own health and seek medical assistance if necessary, the Ministry of Human Resources (MOM) said in a separate press release.
Migrant workers residing in dormitories already receive thermometers. Explaining why pulse oximeters are also emitted, Ms. Teo noted an “important observation” that many migrant workers experience “very mild symptoms or even no symptoms” even after becoming infected with COVID-19.
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In other words, they themselves may not be aware that something has happened and, because they are not feeling bad, they do not seek medical attention.
“As a result, even if they have already been infected, or if they are still infectious and transmit the virus to another person, they do not know,” the minister said.
In total, about 20,000 pulse oximeters will be made available to migrant workers living in specially designed dormitories, dormitory-turned-factories, and temporary rooms within construction sites, he added.
READ: Situation in bedrooms of larger stable foreign workers, but photo of COVID-19 in smaller “mixed” bedrooms: Josephine Teo
VIDEO CONSULTATIONS BETWEEN DOCTOR AND PATIENT
There are also plans to install more kiosks in “a fairly large number” of bedrooms, Ms. Teo said.
These kiosks facilitate video consultations with doctors and are connected to devices that can monitor vital signs, such as blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and temperature.
They also ensure that migrant workers have 24-hour access to a doctor, with the delivery of medications when necessary.
Eight telekiosks have been installed in dorms, MOM said in its press release.
Teleconsultations via mobile phones are also available in the dormitories of migrant workers. Such video consultation services, which are provided by private health care providers listed in the Ministry of Health (MOH) regulatory sandbox, complement on-site and mobile medical support by providing after-hours care.
Since the service began on April 25, about 400 of these video consultations have been held between workers and doctors, MOM said.
“We don’t want the workers (to wait) until they are so sick, to seek medical attention,” said Ms. Teo.
“We want you to raise your hand at the first sign to ask” Can I find out what’s going on with me? “
Together with Singapore’s strategy in testing as part of its health surveillance, these new measures that take advantage of medical technologies will form a “comprehensive plan for health support,” the minister said.
“We are introducing new measures that will help us take care of health conditions and monitor the health of our migrant workers in a more comprehensive way,” said Ms. Teo.
“And we hope that by doing so, we can help the individual worker prevent a recurrence if they have already been affected, or for those who have not been, to prevent them from getting sick in the first place.”
RECOVERY PHASE PLAN
The Minister of Human Resources was speaking to journalists after visiting JTC Space @ Tuas, where a new medical post with a swab isolation facility was established. It also has telemedicine facilities, such as a tele kiosk.
This new medical post, the fifth of its kind, occupies one floor of a vacant multi-story parking garage located in the industrial park. It will start operating on Monday.
Human Resources Minister Josephine Teo at a television kiosk established at JTC Space @ Tuas. (Photo: Singapore Ministry of Human Resources)
Using technology to monitor the health of migrant workers will be important as Singapore prepares to move on to the next phase of its battle against the outbreak of coronavirus in migrant workers’ dorms, Ms. Teo said.
The Inter-Agency Task Force had said it would focus on three phases to ensure the health and well-being of migrant workers residing in dormitories. The first included the implementation of safe distancing measures in these bedrooms and the second phase saw a medical support plan, with the necessary infrastructure and personnel, implemented.
The third phase, called the recovery phase, will see authorities looking for ways to allow recovered workers to resume work safely, according to the MOM press release.
An important aspect of this third phase will be to strengthen the monitoring and surveillance of the health of these workers who live in community settings.
“That is something that we must keep in mind that whenever you have an environment in which large groups of people live together in a communal style, you really have to find ways to strengthen health monitoring and health surveillance to detect infections, “said Ms. Teo
Ms. Teo also noted several efforts made in the past few weeks to address the increase in the number of COVID-19 infections among the migrant worker community here.
This includes the deployment of 3,000 people from various ministries and the health sector to care for the almost 400,000 foreign workers, to help non-governmental organizations.
Ms. Teo said she also wanted to give a “big thank you” to migrant workers who have been “very cooperative” and “very open” in providing feedback so that improvements can be made.
“So overall, you see that all of these efforts are coming together and in the last two weeks, we see that we are making steady progress,” he said.
“After stabilizing the situation and strengthening medical support, we now need to plan the next phase, which is to help workers make a full recovery … and facilitate the eventual return to work of these migrant workers. “
When that happens, new measures that take advantage of medical technologies, such as teleconsultations, will be able to attend to the different needs of these workers, while ensuring that they are cared for in a sustainable way, he added.
Keep in mind that when workers eventually return to work, their work hours are unlikely to be the same for each and every one of them … Some of the workers may return to the bedroom at a time when the medical position it cannot remain open.
Therefore, we must analyze some of the most sustainable ways of continuing to carry out this health monitoring, which is a very important part of caring for migrant workers, “he said.
Additional reports from Melissa Goh.
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