Internal Medicine

When patients are diagnosed with medical conditions that require hospitalisation at the Emergency Department, they will be admitted under Acute Medicine. This group of patients will be looked after by a team of doctors and nurses round the clock initially. The team will handle any emergency that arises. Patients who recover are discharged. If they require further hospital care, they will be transferred to a specialty department according to their conditions, such as Cardiology or Neurology. Patients with conditions that do not fall within the purview of any particular specialty will be transferred under General Medicine.

For instance, a patient who comes to the Emergency Department with a severe headache may be admitted to the hospital under Internal Medicine. The team of doctors in Internal Medicine may request for a variety of tests to ascertain the cause of the headache and also provide medication to alleviate the pain. The patient may subsequently be transferred to Neurology if the tests show evidence of a blood clot in the brain, or to Infectious Diseases if there is evidence of infection around the brain. If it appears to be a case of a severe migraine, the patient will be transferred to General Medicine.