SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF ST ANNE MOTHER AND CHILD CENTRE, 19 OCTOBER 2023, 3.25PM, AT MOUNT ALVERNIA HOSPITAL

Mr Ho Tian Yee, Chairman, Mount Alvernia Hospital

Dr James Lam, CEO, Mount Alvernia Hospital

Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood Sisters

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

1.             I know Mount Alvernia Hospital (MAH) quite well because my family moved somewhere here when I was in Primary 4 or so. Those were the days when the nearest hospital to our house was Woodbridge Hospital. If we had medical emergencies, MAH was the nearest hospital as there was no Khoo Teck Puat Hospital at that time. I made numerous trips here, mostly for my parents and once with my daughter.

2.             It has left a deep impression on me that at MAH, you will always see doctors and nurses who are really loving, caring and compassionate, and who deliver care to patients in a way that touched my family and I when I was growing up.

3.             I am very happy to be back here, with a brand new look and new buildings for MAH. What has happened since 1961? From 60 beds to 300 beds, and with the St Anne Mother & Child Centre, you have added another 70 beds to 370 beds.

4.             The area of obstetric and paediatric care is one where we do not have a bed crunch issue, unlike other sectors, especially for seniors. Part of the reason is we have KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), Thomson Medical, and now St Anne Mother & Child Centre. There is a good balance between what the private hospitals and KKH are providing. It also reflects our inverted demographic pyramid.

5.             For these reasons, this is one sector where capacity is healthy and patients can be very well taken care of. This is what I hope can be the shape of things to come for the entire healthcare sector. During COVID-19, many patients went to public hospitals whose workload then went up, while private hospitals took less of the overall healthcare workload. We used to have an 80-20 split, where 80% of the workload was with the public hospitals and 20% with private hospitals. Post-COVID, It has become 85-15. But for obstetric and paediatric care, I think we still have a good balance.

6.             I hope that private hospitals, such as MAH and Assisi Hospice, will continue to grow, so that we have a more variegated landscape, with more diversity and choice, and in many ways, greater resilience. It is possible for us to have private and public hospitals working side by side, creating a much better healthcare system for all of us. Most importantly, underlying every good hospital is care, love and passion.

7.             Congratulations for pulling through this throughout the COVID-19 years. I am sure it took you a lot of hard work, resilience and grit. Thank you very much. I look forward to visiting this new centre.