The Doctor Is In

One doctor shares what it’s like to work at Singapore’s only public sexual health clinic – and answers some burning questions.

- Sophie Hong

If you want to get tested or treated for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Singapore, there’s only one place to get it done at a subsidised rate – the Department of Sexually Transmitted Infections Control (DSC) Clinic. Located in Kelantan Lane (which is in the Jalan Besar area), the building also houses a women-only clinic on level 2. Dr Coni Liu, an associate consultant at the National Skin Centre and a specialist at the DSC Clinic, tells us what a day at work is like for her, and when we should start panicking when we feel that something is wrong down there.

Your doctor is most likely from the National Skin Centre

The Department of STI Control is part of the National Skin Centre (NSC), so Dr Liu splits her time between the NSC and DSC clinics. She goes into work at NSC at 8am, and will see an average of about 20 patients before noon. The official lunch break is from 12pm to 1pm, but the doctors will usually have meetings over lunch.

Typically, she’ll reach the DSC Clinic around 1:15pm, where she’ll be busy with consultations till about 4:30pm.

“My primary interest when I started my medical training was dermatology. Sexual health comes under this umbrella because a lot of sexual conditions have a lot of skin signs. So all of us will rotate through the DSC Clinic as part of our training to become specialists,” explains Dr Liu.

She sees 16 patients a day… or more