Penalty pushed for dental sign-up no-shows

Henry Siu

A punishment mechanism should be set up as a third of people who registered for the dental general public session on Monday did not show up on Tuesday, says a patients' rights advocate.

Monday was the first day for online registration, allowing patients to avoid physically queuing, which could take hours.

The no-shows merely deprived those who were in urgent need of care, Society for Community Organization's Tim Pang Hung-cheong said.

A total of 686 people registered for the 88 quotas on Monday, making it around eight people competing for one place, the Department of Health said.

But 26 of the 88 successful registrants did not show up on Tuesday, with some saying they were unable to go or had forgotten about it.

Pang said the government should introduce a punishment mechanism to deter people from wasting public resources.

For example, those who fail to show up after registration without a valid reason should be banned from drawing a lot for a certain period, he said.

"Elderly people usually struggle with digital service. Although clinic staff will assist them with the registration, they might not know whether they have been allocated a quota even if they got an SMS message," Pang said.

He also said the government should set up a waiting list for the public dental service to utilize the resources. If registered patients fail to show up, they should immediately inform people who had applied for a quota about the vacancy on the day.

He also said it is unacceptable that some people forgot.

"If people who waited for an urgent dental service didn't show up, I wonder how urgent their situation was," he said.

Pang added that authorities have not developed a plan to help those who have repeatedly failed to be allocated a quota, suggesting the department should reserve places for them.

He anticipated that the demand for public dental services will drop after the introduction of the Community Dental Support Programme for the underprivileged in the middle of the year.

henry.siu@singtaonewscorp.com