'Oh my god, it's moving': SingHealth apologises after kids bitten by bedbugs on hospital's bench

Healthcare group SingHealth has apologised after a man's kids were bitten by bedbugs while seated on a bench at Outram Community Hospital.

Stomp contributor Anonymous said the incident happened on Monday (Dec 26), at around 1pm.

Anonymous shared a close-up video of the creepy-crawlies and can be heard saying, "Just to show that it's real bedbugs. You see, you see. Oh my god, it's moving, it's moving."

Someone else is also heard saying: "Oh my god... Watching this I feel so itchy leh."

Anonymous told Stomp: "The bedbugs are in between the spaces of the wooden bench. We discovered them after my kids got bitten.

"I informed a nurse who was manning the turnstile and was told that they already knew. And yet they did not inform visitors."

The Stomp contributor, who has also reported the matter to SingHealth, said he decided to highlight this online in case people brought home the bedbugs unknowingly.

He added: "Why I reported this is not for fame or to shame. But rather, hearing that the bedbugs problem is not new, it is possible that the management is fighting more important battles like a medical personnel crunch etc

"Bedbugs can be found anywhere given the right environment, but we do need to stop people from bringing them back home unknowingly."

In response to a Stomp query, Dexter Chia, SingHealth's director of group operations, said: "We thank the reader for highlighting this and apologise for his encounter with bedbugs.

"Our pest technician is doing a thorough check of all the benches at the Outram Community Hospital Level 1 area, in addition to our regular maintenance, to resolve it.

"In the meantime, to ensure the health and safety of our visitors and members of the public, our operations team has blocked off these benches and stopped their use temporarily."

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This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.