In a recent incident that has captured the public’s attention, a 29-year-old woman from China, Han Feizi, who filmed herself arguing with a police officer at Singapore General Hospital and claimed that she was allegedly refused medical treatment here because she is not a Singapore citizen, was charged in court facing multiple charges, including the use of insulting language towards a public servant, according to The Straits Times, The New Paper and TODAY.
The hospital has since refuted her allegations and made clarifications on the incident, saying that the woman had been thoroughly reviewed by their medical team.
Charges
She appeared in court via a video link at about 9.40am and sported a black shirt, and told the court that she will be pleading guilty and said that she was sorry for what she had done.
The woman was charged with the following:
- one count of being a public nuisance
- two counts of using insulting language towards a public servant
- two counts of using criminal force on a security officer
- harassment
The Viral Video
The incident gained widespread attention after a video was posted on the Chinese social media platform Douyin. This video depicted the police interviewing the woman, who had been accused of being insulting the hospital workers.
The Singaporean police received a call for help at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) at around 2:35 am.
In the video, the woman claimed to have waited for three hours in the hospital’s emergency department without receiving any medical attention after allegedly being hit by a car.
She further alleged that a nurse told her she would not be treated because she was not a Singaporean citizen. These claims were later disputed by SGH.
Insights from SGH
Speaking to The Straits Times, the head and senior consultant for SGH’s department of emergency medicine, Associate Professor Kenneth Tan, said that the woman was discharged after 2 hours, after she had been thoroughly reviewed by the medical staff.
Tan added that everyone who presents themselves at SGH’s emergency department will receive the medical care that they require.
The situation also escalated when the woman refused to wear a face mask and according to Professor Tan, during the triage process at the emergency department, a staff member offered her a mask, which she refused to put on, despite being reminded about the government’s guidelines on wearing masks in Singapore’s hospitals.
As the situation got increasingly heated, the woman continued to behave in an aggressive manner and the medical staff had to call the police for help, as her behaviour was affecting the hospital operations.
Douyin Videos
The woman posted two videos on Douyin, both exceeding 11 minutes. She was also seen demanding a plainclothes police officer to identify herself and attempting to grab her police lanyard.
According to ST, the Singapore Police Force said that the two plainclothes officers, who were investigations officers, had introduced themselves in front of uniformed officers before speaking to the woman.
The female police officer was seen in the video repeatedly asking the woman if she had used vulgarities on the nurse, but the woman refused to answer.
The woman refused to cooperate and used vulgarities on one of the police officers, and filmed her interview with one of the female investigation officers and sharing them on her Douyin account.
The videos, which have since been reposted on several social media platforms, have been viewed more than a million times in total.
You can watch the videos here, here and here.
Not her first brush with the law
The woman had a prior altercation with the law on October 3, when she was reported for an incident at a condominium in Marina Boulevard.
The police were called after she allegedly pushed a security officer and insulted him while being drunk at the time.
She is also said to have possibly breached the conditions of her work permit in Singapore, and the Ministry of Manpower has been alerted to the situation.
The police added that they will take firm action against offenders who behave against their public servants and workers who are carrying out their public duties, in accordance with the law.
Images source: Google Maps and Douyin.