3rd Mount Alvernia Hospital Medical Conference

19 Jan 2008

By Prof K Satku

Venue: Sheraton Towers

Dr Sitoh Yih Yiow, Chairman, Organising Committee

Colleagues

Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to join you this afternoon at the opening of the 3rd Mount Alvernia Hospital Medical Conference.

I am told that we have a number of delegates from abroad, including a speaker. Let me begin by extending a warm welcome to our guests and I hope you will have a very pleasant stay in Singapore.

Neuroscience in the New Millennium

The theme for this Medical Conference is Neuroscience in the New Millennium. This is indeed a most relevant subject, given the impending demographic changes of an aging population in Singapore. 

By 2030, the elderly will form 18% of our population and with this transition the potential for neurological disorders will be significantly increased.

Stroke, a leading neurological disorder, is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in Singapore.

It was the 4th leading cause of mortality in 2006, accounting for 9% of all deaths. In 2004 it was the 3rd leading cause of disease burden, as measured by Disability-Adjusted Life Years.

Disability-Adjusted Life Years is the number of years of ‘healthy’ life lost due to premature deaths and ill-health.

Stroke accounted for 7.1% of years of ‘healthy’ life lost.

To help the Ministry develop an overall strategy aimed at the prevention and control of strokes and to minimize this burden of disease we have formed a National Advisory Committee for National Stroke Strategy.

This committee will take a comprehensive approach looking at primary prevention, early detection, clinical services, and rehabilitation.

The committee will review current services, identify gaps, and present to the Ministry of Health recommendations to enhance the quality of stroke prevention and treatment in Singapore.

We expect the review to be completed by the middle of 2008.

The challenge for the medical profession is to stay abreast of new developments, and to maintain competency and currency so that we may offer the most appropriate care for our patients.

I am encouraged to see Mt Alvernia Hospital continue the organization of this biennial medical conference to promote a learning environment for medical practitioners.

Establishing private institutions as learning institutions

What would be more gratifying would be for Mount Alvernia Hospital or for that matter all our healthcare institutions to sustain an ongoing learning environment through regular conduct of continuing professional development activities.

My Ministry recognizes that there is much medical expertise amongst practitioners in the private healthcare institutions and we believe that you have the ability to create and maintain a learning environment in the private sector.

We plan to accord such institutions the privilege and authority in two broad areas of professional development, to encourage them to establish themselves as learning institutions.

CME activities

The first area which I would like to touch on is the accreditation of Continuing Medical Education activities.

Currently, CME providers are required to submit an online application to the Singapore Medical Council for CME accreditation for every single event or programme. All applications are assessed individually.

Looking forward, we would like public and private institutions which have established an appropriate learning environment within their organization, to be designated as accredited CME providers.

These institutions should have a CME committee which meets to develop and plan CME programmes on a regular basis for doctors in their institutions.

The activities of the CME committee in each institution should be substantiated by documentation of due process, including minutes of meetings, details of the CME programme, as well as records of the CME programme attendance.

The accreditation of CME activities will be devolved to institutions which show commitment towards ensuring the delivery of quality CME activities.

Supervision of conditionally registered doctors 

The other area of professional development activity that private healthcare institutions can engage in is the supervision of 1st year conditionally registered doctors, both specialists and non specialists.

Currently foreign trained doctors from schools on our schedule and foreign trained specialists recognized by the Specialist Accreditation Board are required to serve at least the 1st year of service in restructured hospitals so that they may familiarize themselves with our health system, our people, our vision, our mission and values.

In restructured hospitals there are groups of different healthcare professional who generate and engage in a variety of professional development activities including regular grand rounds where they share their expertise and experience in the management of clinical cases.

This creates and sustains a collegiate learning environment while enabling a peer review process for robust supervision of new doctors in our health system.

If you or your hospital takes the initiative and gets yourself organized to achieve this outcome it would enable your hospital to supervise 1st year conditionally registered doctors and we would be most happy to accredit your institution as a provider of the supervisory framework.

You would then have the flexibility to select and recruit your own doctors from abroad, specialists and non-specialists alike, and supervise them throughout their conditional registration phase.

Until healthcare institutions have developed a learning environment that will enable a supervisory framework for doctors new in our healthcare system, applications to register new doctors for practice in their institution will generally not be approved by the Medical Council.

I am heartened that some private institutions are taking steps to develop this learning environment.  But more must be done, so that the Singapore Medical Council can confidently devolve these responsibilities to the institutions themselves.

Conclusion

The private sector is where some of our best are practising.

With such a valuable resource in place, the only thing left is for you to organize yourselves and to develop the infrastructure to create a learning environment in your institution to be accorded the privileges   I discussed.

I wish you an enjoyable learning experience, and a successful meeting.  Thank you.