(Oct 12) FROM this month, you can check the National Healthcare Group (NHG) Polyclinics' website to see how well its diabetic patients fare.

The other polyclinic group, SingHealth Polyclinics, will be posting its results online by the middle of next year.

Presumably, patients can then compare their results, which could help them decide where to seek treatment.

Clinics can also benchmark themselves against each other by posting their data, said NHG Polyclinics' chief executive officer Jason Cheah.

NHG Polyclinics has posted the percentage of patients who have good blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and who have gone for foot and eye checks.

The moves by the polyclinics are in line with Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's aim to encourage greater transparency in health care, and give useful information to people.

Four years ago, the ministry published hospitals' average bill sizes for common procedures such as heart bypasses and gall-bladder removals.

More recently, Mr Khaw said the ministry would collate and publish data from hospitals, polyclinics and private clinics on their patients with major chronic ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and stroke.

In that spirit, some hospitals have begun publishing surgery results on their websites.

The National University Hospital was the first to do so in July last year, and now posts data on 10 conditions, such as cataracts, childhood leukaemia and gastric cancer.

It was followed by KK Women's and Children's Hospital in December last year, and the Singapore General Hospital and National Heart Centre in February this year.

Even unfavourable results will be posted, NHG Polyclinics' Dr Cheah promised.

In fact, its results now show that the proportion of diabetic patients who have ideal blood sugar levels is 35 per cent this year, less than the 41 per cent in 2005.

Dr Cheah thinks the slide is probably because the polyclinics are accepting more, and older, patients.

He said: 'The idea is greater transparency; not so much to influence patients' choice.'

Retiree Balagopalan Panicker, 57, for example, will continue to have his diabetes treated at Toa Payoh Polyclinic as it is near his home and is cheap.

Experience in countries such as the United States, which began publishing data a decade ago, also shows that not many patients look at such information, said Dr Jeff Levin-Scherz, an assistant professor from Harvard Medical School who was in town last week to speak to doctors.

But making such data public does improve overall health-care standards, he said.

About two years ago, for example, a review of the results of heart-bypass surgery for four hospitals in Massachusetts resulted in one closing down its bypass programme because its results were poor.

He said: 'All doctors want to be the best. When they see themselves underperforming, it provides them with a powerful motivation to improve.'

huichieh@sph.com.sg