$5 Pap Smear Screening for the ladies

I've heard about the $5 screening offer from HPB last year but didn't bother.

Until I came across articles on pap smear and cervical cancer and it got me thinking that I should perhaps do a test.....for $5.

I initially thought that all I had to do was to show the clinic my IC and I'd be eligible for the $5 screening. Turns out, we need to present a letter for verification before we can enjoy the rate.

I then checked out the HPB website and contacted their hotline to request for the screening letter. I vaguely recalled receiving it sometime back, but probably lost the letter 🤭

The officer on the hotline told me that the letter generation will take 2 weeks. Oh gosh, another example of the slow service from government agencies. I told them to expedite as I want to have the scan soon. No promises, they said. And I wondered, how many procedures backend would it take for them to "approve" my letter? 🤔Shouldn't such letters be built inside the health buddy app which is under HPB's purview? Seems like the integration of government services across agencies and apps still needs improvement. Hopefully someone from HPB can see this feedback and implement it 😊

In any case, I managed to get my letter sent to my email in 4 working days and will be heading for my screening soon!

You can check out what screenings you are eligible here.

I strongly suggest everyone to enjoy the government's kind extension and get yourselves screened at a highly affordable rate.

Hopefully my post will create a spike in numbers of people screening (and probably, calling in to request for the screening letter haha!)

Stay healthy everyone!