Speech by Minister Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Health, Outram Community Hospital Groundbreaking Ceremony, 21 May 2015

Professor Ivy Ng
Group CEO of SingHealth

Professor Ang Chong Lye
CEO of SGH

Professor Fong Kok Yong
Chairman of Medical Board, SGH

My Parliamentary Colleague, Mr Patrick Tay

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

1          It gives me great pleasure to join you this morning at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Outram Community Hospital. When completed by 2020, the Outram Community Hospital will provide over 500 community and sub-acute beds and provide rehabilitation care to residents in this area.

2          The Bukit Merah area has the second-largest number of residents aged 65 and above in Singapore.[1] The profile of patients visiting Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is also getting older. Last year, over 41%, or 32,000, of SGH’s inpatient discharges were elderly patients aged 65 and above.

Making care better for seniors

3      With an ageing population, we need to enhance our healthcare system to provide patient-centric and appropriate care for our seniors. Our seniors who visit our hospitals tend to be more frail, have multiple medical conditions, and require longer care. But they take no joy in staying in hospitals for too long. They want to go home as soon as they can, and to be with their family.

4      Therefore, we need to "join up" patient care across acute, intermediate and long-term care, to make care more seamless and appropriate for our seniors.  

5          This is what the new Outram Community Hospital aims to achieve. As it is located close to SGH, OCH will work with SGH to take over the care of senior patients earlier, and provide them with active rehab, so that they can shorten their stay in SGH. OCH will adopt a multi-disciplinary team approach to rehab, led or coordinated by a rehab physician. OCH and SGH will also collaborate and develop new and better ways to treat and rehabilitate patients.

6          For example, the new model of care at the community hospital will focus on optimising patients’ recovery, to prepare them for their return home. OCH will work on early assessment and rehabilitation of patients, so that the therapy can be customised to the patients’ clinical condition and thereby maximise their recovery.

7          The new Community Hospital is also designed to support the new way that care is provided to patients. Rehab spaces are incorporated into the design of the hospital so as to facilitate patient rehabilitation. 

8          OCH will also provide an elderly friendly environment, so that elderly patients can move around safely and confidently. This extends to common areas, such as building entrances, drop-off points and waiting areas. SingHealth has incorporated these elderly friendly designs into the “Singapore Healthcare Age-Friendly Infrastructure Design Guide”. I encourage other healthcare institutions to leverage SingHealth’s research and insights and apply these design principles.

Home care and community partnerships

9          OCH will be working on patient care pathways to better transit patients into the community and to sustain rehab in the community setting. I am pleased to note that OCH will be actively engaging community partners to integrate community hospital services with care services in the community, so that seniors can transit home seamlessly.

10        For example, HCA Hospice Care will be locating both their home hospice offices, as well as a day hospice, at OCH. With the close proximity of HCA’s home hospice offices to the inpatient wards in OCH, HCA staff can easily liaise with referring doctors, and perform pre-admission visits to patients to ensure better discharge planning, while they are still in hospital. Staff from HCA and OCH can also participate in multidisciplinary case discussions on the care and transition of patients across different settings. The co-location will not only bring about seamless care for patients, but also improve sharing of resources and training of staff between HCA and OCH. 

Conclusion

11        To conclude, let me congratulate SGH on the groundbreaking of the Outram Community Hospital today. I am confident that when completed, OCH will deliver integrated and quality care to our patients. Thank you.

[1] http://www.singstat.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/publications/publications_and_papers/population_and_population_structure/population2014.pdf