Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health, at the Rotary Club of Raffles City's 36th Anniversary Dinner

Mrs Nidhi Swarup, President of Rotary Club Raffles City
Board Members of Rotary Club Raffles City
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good evening.

1.    It is my pleasure to attend the board installation and Charity Gala Dinner of the Rotary Club of Raffles City.

2.    The Rotary Club aims to encourage and foster the ideal of service to the community. Specifically for health, the Rotary Clubs in Singapore have initiated numerous Community Service Projects together with various organisations to support patients suffering from various health conditions, including SATA, Handicaps Welfare Association and the Singapore Cancer Society.

3.    In 2012, the Rotary Club of Raffles City had taken the lead together with five other Rotary Clubs to establish the Crohn’s and Colitis Society of Singapore (CCSS), providing a functional Support Group that gives voice to patients and helps address their care needs. The Club is also collaborating with CCSS and Duke-NUS to promote medical research on Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Titled “Optimising Quality of Endoscopy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)”, the collaboration is a pioneering effort by an NGO teaming up with a medical institution to promote medical research on Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

Cancer and screening

4.    While not the predominant cause of colorectal cancer, patients suffering from Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis are at a six times higher risk than the general population of developing colorectal cancer after 8 to 10 years of first symptoms. Notably, colorectal cancer is the most common type of cancer amongst males and the second most common cancer amongst females in Singapore^[1]. It is also the second and third most frequent cause of cancer deaths in males and females, respectively^[2].

5.    With such a high risk of colorectal cancer, each of us needs to do our part to prevent it by adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including having regular exercise, a balanced diet, and not smoking.  Going for regular screening will also facilitate the diagnosis of colorectal cancer in the early stages for prompt treatment to achieve good health outcomes. Under the Health Promotion Board’s Screen for Life programme, eligible Singaporeans and Permanent Residents aged 50 years and above can be screened for colorectal cancer using the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) kits at participating Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) GP clinics offering the Screen for Life programme. The FIT test is available free of charge to PG and CHAS members, who also enjoy up to 2 subsidised Screen for Life related consultations a year.

Supporting Healthcare Research

6.    Beyond healthcare, MOH is investing resources to improve healthcare research. As we strive to meet short and medium term healthcare needs, we are also looking ahead to find better, more cost-effective solutions to care for Singaporeans. For example, the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium, funded by the National Medical Research Council and led by A/Prof Yeoh Khay Guan, invented a diagnostic system to be used in conjunction with endoscopes to perform real time in-vivo molecular diagnosis of pre-cancerous tissues. The system is now deployed in clinical settings to perform examinations across diverse cancers. With its help, clinicians can now diagnose more quickly and accurately

7.    MOH will continue to support healthcare research that enables better care. Specifically, we will focus on building a talent pool of clinician-scientists and clinical researchers, and reaping value from healthcare research by bringing research outcomes from the lab to the clinic. Earlier this year, the Government committed $19billion in R&D for the next 5 years, as a sign of Singapore’s continued commitment to the journey of research, innovation, and enterprise (RIE). Of this, $4 billion is allocated for research in the Health & Biomedical Sciences domain.

Private sector partnership

8.    The private sector plays an important role in Singapore’s healthcare system, not just in providing healthcare services but in education and research as well. Private healthcare institutions work hand in hand with our public healthcare institutions to ensure that healthcare remains accessible and affordable to all Singaporeans. They also provide clinical attachment and supervision for medical residents, contributing to developing our medical manpower pool. 

9.    Similarly, the private sector has an important role in research. In this R&D journey, the business community is a strong partner which facilitates the development of new projects. Apart from co-funding research projects, our private sector partners also bring with them extensive experience and technical expertise in healthcare research, especially in the area of commercialisation. Through such collaborations, our researchers are able to better understand the international landscape and bring products to the market in a more efficient way.

Conclusion

10. In closing, I would like to thank the Rotary Club of Raffles City for its efforts in this pioneering project with Duke-NUS. I hope to see more collaborations between the Rotary club and other NGOs and societies to facilitate ground-breaking research.

Thank you.

^[1] National Registry of Disease Office. Singapore Cancer Registry. Trends in Cancer Incidence. 2010-2014

^[2] National Registry of Disease Office. Singapore Cancer Registry. Trends in Cancer Incidence. 2010-2014