Polyclinics to offer H1N1 jabs at $29 each
A SHOT of the H1N1 vaccine will cost $29 at the 18 polyclinics islandwide when it arrives in Singapore in about a week.
And for now, it is available only to adults over 18, as it is still being tested on children.
The price was agreed upon by the two health -care clusters, Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) and National Healthcare Group (NHG), to make the vaccine affordable to everyone.
SingHealth Polyclinics chief executive officer Tan Chee Beng said yesterday: "At $29 nett at the polyclinics, the cost of the H1N1 vaccination is much lower than Tamiflu. It is a cost effective shield against H1N1."
The antiviral drug Tamiflu can cost a patient between $45 and $70.
Private clinics said they were still waiting word from the Health Ministry on pricing but would probably charge $30 to $32 for the shots.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on Sunday that the Government would not subsidise the cost of the vaccines but may give needy patients financial help if they needed it.
Some private clinics have received thousands of orders from members of the public.
Healthway Medical, which has more than 80 clinics, said it had 4,000 patients asking for the vaccine.
The Raffles Medical Group has received a "few thousand" requests at its 63 medical centres. Parkway Shenton, which runs 40 clinics, said however that it would not be offering the vaccine for now.
As of Monday, there were more than 200 people on the waiting list of NHG polyclinics. There are 740 on SingHealth's.
If demand outstrips supply, MOH advises general practitioners to give priority to high-risk patients such as pregnant women and those with chronic medical conditions.
The H1N1 vaccine is more costly than that for the seasonal flu strains, which is $20 per shot at NHG clinics and $23.60 at SingHealth clinics. The seasonal flu shot will not give immunity to H1N1 or vice versa.
During the first wave of H1N1, 18 people died in Singapore. An estimated 5,000 died worldwide, but its second wave is expected to be much milder.
Singapore will be receiving one million doses from British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) by Christmas - 20 per cent of which will be reserved for essential personnel, such as health-care workers and the police.
The remaining 800,000 doses will be distributed at cost to hospitals, polyclinics and GPs in private practice.
A GSK spokesman said contractual obligations prevented it from disclosing how much it was selling the vaccine to Singapore for.
Singaporeans welcomed the prospect of getting immunity against H1N1.
Even though she felt that $29 was costly, housewife Chan Shin Young, 70, said she would get a jab.
"I'm going to ask my two daughters to go for it also," she said.
Clinical director of the Communicable Disease Centre Leo Yee Sin said unless a patient knows for sure that he has had the H1N1 flu and is therefore immune, he should have the vaccine to be safe.