Vivian Lai Faces Backlash For Slamming S’pore Hospital in IG Post

Idols and celebrities are often expected to be role models—after all, in the eyes of most fans, they can do no wrong.

Sometimes it gets hard to keep up the image, especially in particularly extenuating circumstances. For local actress Vivian Lai, this situation happened to be poor service at an “unnamed” hospital.

Here’s what happened.

Hospital Allegedly Had Poor Service

On 17 March, Taiwan-born local artiste Vivian Lai took to her Instagram stories to slam a hospital for bad service, shoddily censoring the hospital name.

She had gone for a consultation at the hospital but felt unsatisfied with the quality of service she was offered, and posted two Instagram stories to express this.

Writing in Chinese, she accused the hospital of “riding on its reputation”, called the hospital fees “abnormal”, and said that service staff were “rude”. 

“Rxfxxxx Hospital, I’m too disappointed,” she wrote. 

Although she had censored the name of the hospital (sort of), it’s easy to figure out exactly which one she’s talking about. Even if you’re unfamiliar with local hospitals, a quick Google search of “hospitals in Singapore” will do the trick.

She added that the hospital did not afford patients basic respect. “The more I think about it, the angrier I get,” she expressed in her post. “This place is just like a factory! We are people! We’re not machines!”

She ended her rant by telling others to stay away from the hospital.

Slammed In Return?

Netizens actually did not take the post well, savagely slamming her for being attention-seeking and a poor role model.

According to Shin Min Daily News, netizens accused her of trying to “create news and seek attention”; others called her “impolite” and accused her of being unable to control her temper. 

Some felt that as an artiste, she should have acted as a role model to others, and disagreed with her angry critique of the hospital.

Though the comments mostly criticise her, a few expressed their support, stating that even celebrities are entitled to vent their emotions. 

Aftermath

When asked about the post by Shin Min Daily News, Ms Lai expressed her unwillingness to comment through her manager.

Her post about the hospital has since been taken down.

However, netizens have not forgotten about the incident. Instead, they took to her most recent post on 25 February to discuss their thoughts.

In the post, which was a picture of her and a dog, a user shared their own horror story about the hospital, citing similar complaints.

“The service quality was terrible. I waited over half an hour for a doctor, and when I asked a nurse if he was still there, they asked me to wait. I asked how much longer I had to wait when I was already in discomfort, and she did not answer, and I ended up waiting for an hour before leaving. Fees are expensive, service is bad,” the commenter wrote. 

Ms Lai thanked them for sharing the experience in response.

Other netizens were not so kind, however. 

One questioned where the original post went, in pretty abrasive language:

Another compared her to local artiste Quan Yi Fong, who apparently has a reputation for being hot-tempered and challenging to work with. 

What are your thoughts?