SPEECH BY MR GAN KIM YONG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH, AT THE KWONG WAI SHIU HOSPITAL 109TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, 23 NOVEMBER 2019

Mr Patrick Lee, Chairman of Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital
Mr Heng Chee How, Senior Minister of State for Defence
Board members of Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

1.     Good morning. It is my pleasure to join you this morning to commemorate the 109th anniversary of Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital. I would like to thank the Hospital for your many years of good work and your partnership in caring for our seniors.

2.     Singapore is ageing rapidly. Our life expectancy is one of the highest in the world at close to 85 years , and this gift of time is cause for celebration. However, given our changing demographics, we are likely to see more seniors and many of them will be living alone in time to come. This is why we launched the Community Network for Seniors (CNS) in 2016, to facilitate the last mile service delivery to our seniors by improving the coordination of social and healthcare services. CNS has since expanded islandwide to anchor a strong community care system for seniors.

3.     We also have the Silver Generation Office (SGO) which reaches out to seniors through its volunteers, the Silver Generation (SG) Ambassadors. The SG Ambassadors share with their seniors the various government policies and schemes, as well as active ageing programmes in the community that seniors can participate in to stay physically active and socially engaged.

4.     Together, CNS and SGO work hand-in-hand with other partners to promote preventive healthcare and active ageing among our seniors in the community. I am heartened to learn that Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital is one of the key partners. I will now touch on two initiatives that Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital will be launching, which will benefit our seniors in many ways.

Silver Generation Office @ Kallang

5.     The first of these new initiatives is the SGO@Kallang. As part of its outreach to Merdeka Generation seniors, SGO has expanded its mode of engagement to include outreach at workplaces and community spaces. It is with this view of providing more accessible and holistic support for seniors that the SGO satellite office at Jalan Besar has been relocated to the Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital Community Hub, and will be renamed SGO@Kallang to reflect its new location. The co-location of SGO@Kallang within these grounds will bring about greater synergy and integration of eldercare services with other partners at the Hub.

Training and Development

6.     The second initiative relates to training and development. Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital has been supporting the training of healthcare staff. It is one of six Learning Institutes appointed by AIC to develop, deliver and administer training courses for the community care sector. These courses are offered under the umbrella of its Community Training Institute, set up just a year ago. It now offers an expanded range of courses for the community care sector.

7.     Besides training community care manpower, Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital is also actively involved in supporting the Ministry of Health’s efforts in the area of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) professional development. In July 2019, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) School of Biological Sciences to drive TCM research and learning for students and physicians.

8.     In this new initiative with NTU, Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital has developed a new TCM Physician Programme with the first intake commencing in January 2020. This programme will provide opportunities for TCM physicians graduating from NTU to deepen their experience in TCM care. With KWSH’s rich experience in using TCM for their patients, the new graduates in this programme will benefit from on-the-job training across various care settings within Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, including the TCM outpatient centre, nursing home, and community engagements. The launch of this TCM Physician Programme is a step in the right direction in raising the standards of TCM practitioners.

Closing

9.     In closing, I would like to congratulate Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital on your anniversary and would like to thank you for your contributions towards caring for our seniors. I look forward to many years of quality healthcare and eldercare services and wish everyone from Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital an enjoyable anniversary celebration. Thank you.