17 May 2003
The Courage Fund announces guidelines for hospitalisation relief and educational grant

The Working Committee of The Courage Fund would like to thank all Singaporeans for their generous support towards The Courage Fund.

As announced earlier, the Fund has been providing immediate financial relief to patients who contracted SARS and those who have unfortunately lost their lives to SARS.

The Fund will now be used to finance two more schemes. The first scheme is to provide hospitalisation relief to patients who are warded in the hospitals for observation or because they are suspected to have SARS. The second scheme is to provide education grants to children of healthcare workers who pass away in the line of duty in the fight against SARS.

SCHEME 1: HOSPITALSATION RELIEF FOR OBSERVATION AND SUSPECT CASES

The purpose of this relief is to help alleviate the additional financial burden of the hospital bill and the loss of income. The details are as follows:

For Unemployed Persons
Hospitalisation Relief at $50 per day of hospitalisation, up to the point of “fit for discharge”.

For Self-employed Persons
Hospitalisation Relief at $100 per day of hospitalisation, up to the point of “fit for discharge”.

Patients who are employed shall not qualify for the Hospitalisation Relief, as it is expected that their employers will cover them with paid medical leave and medical benefits.

Similarly, the above reliefs are not applicable to SARS victims who are probable cases since they already receive a lump sum financial relief from The Courage Fund.

Patients who are eligible for the Hospitalisation Relief will be receiving a claim form through the post from 19 May 2003 onwards. Payment will be processed once the patients return these forms to The Courage Fund.

SCHEME 2: EDUCATION GRANT

The objective of this grant is to cater to the educational needs of the children of healthcare workers who lose their lives to SARS in the line of duty. This is to give healthcare workers peace of mind that in the unfortunate event of their sacrifice in the line of duty, the education needs of their children will be taken care of.

The Education Grant is targetted at covering the projected educational needs of the child, up to the level of basic degree education.

The Education Grant shall be pegged to the cost of obtaining a local education in Singapore (for example, diploma education at local polytechnics or basic degree education at local universities). The details are as follows:

The amount of the grant for each level of education is intended to cover a substantial portion of the costs of a child’s education, including school fees, school books, uniforms, shoes, transport and other expenses.

For university students, the grant will be in the form of an annual living allowance as well as reimbursement of the applicable tuition fees.

LOOKING FORWARD
It is uncertain how long the fight against SARS will continue. To cater to future occurrences of serious SARS episodes, a portion of the Fund will be set aside as a reserve to assist healthcare workers and SARS victims.

For the balance of the fund, the Working Committee is looking into initiating projects which have long lasting symbolic value to honour our healthcare workers for their outstanding courage during this period. We will be consulting representatives of the healthcare community to seek their inputs and release details of our proposals in due course.

For public enquiries on the details of the above two schemes, please call The Courage Fund Claims Hotline: 6471 5916 or e-mail: couragefundclaims@nhg.com.sg