The Signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Jurong Shipyard & Alexandra Hospital and the Launch of MyHealth Scheme

07 May 2007

By Mr Heng Chee How

Venue: Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd

Mr. Tan Kwi Kin, Group President & CEO of SembCorp Marine Ltd,

Mr. Wong Weng Sun, President & Chief Operating Officer, SembCorp Marine Ltd & Managing Director, Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd

Mr. Liak Teng Lit, Chief Executive Officer of Alexandra Hospital,

Staff from JSPL, Alexandra Hospital and invited guests,

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your invitation to today’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd and Alexandra Hospital, and the launch of JSPL’s MyHealth Scheme. I hope that it will be the start of a fruitful partnership.

The emphasis on the health and well-being of JSPL’s employees comes at a time when, Singapore’s population is aging rapidly, and is estimated to increase from 7% in 2000 to 19% by 2030 . If we are not prepared for this and help our workers remain in good health, we will erode our competitiveness and productivity.

I am told that JSPL has long put in place various occupational health and safety programmes, which focus on preventive care, healthy lifestyle choices and management of chronic illnesses. I applaud you for moving in the right direction by taking a holistic approach to maintaining one’s health. Your decision to set up a $150,000 fund for the new medical plan will ensure that there are resources to back up the good intentions.

Besides heeding our aging demographic and the corresponding increase in prevalence of illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, promoting health at the workplace will also help to increase productivity and contain or moderate health expenditure. Both employer and employee stand to gain; the worker benefits from better health, employability and sense of well-being and the employer benefits from lower absenteeism, lower healthcare costs, and greater economic competitiveness. Hence, this collaboration between JSPL and AH is value creating. 

I will like to particularly commend your efforts in three areas: health screening, health education and promotion, and the management of chronic illnesses.

Health Screening

Health screening, properly designed and followed up, has been found to be useful in detecting diseases that do not manifest early warning signs. These include the silent killers like heart diseases, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. I understand that even before the signing of the MOU today, Alexandra Hospital has been screening the employees of JSPL for the past 4 years and is working closely with the management of JSPL in implementing more preventive health programmes for the workforce.

Health Education and Promotion

As a Gold Award recipient of the Singapore Health Award , JSPL already has a noteworthy workplace health promotion programme. This will be strengthened with the signing of the MOU, where AH and JSPL will jointly develop a health education programme that provides appropriate information, counselling and educational measures that encourage maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This includes changing behaviours that affect employees' health such as exercise, smoking, drinking, sleeping and eating habits. AH will also work with JSPL’s Occupational Health Unit in providing guidelines, information and training materials for strengthening working capacity.

Management of chronic illness

Chronic diseases are silent killers. Presently, they are the main causes of mortality and morbidity in developed countries and they contribute significantly to escalating healthcare costs. Therefore, prevention, early detection and systematic follow-up are the keys to overcoming and dealing with these diseases. I am glad that JSPL is working with AH in giving attention to employees affected by such diseases and in placing more emphasis on health education and disease prevention.

Access to health information

One of the goals of chronic disease management is empowering and engaging patients to take active care and management of their own health. For this to happen, patients will need access to key information, including their own medical records.  In line with this, AH and JSPL are launching JSPL’s MyHealth Portal. This portal will allow each employee to access his health information online in a secure way. The information in MyHealth Portal will also help the employee’s doctor and other health care providers make better decisions with the employee about his health care, with his permission.

I believe the (MOU) between JSPL and Alexandra Hospital is an example of a synergistic relationship where each party leverage on the in-depth industry knowledge of the other to produce a win-win outcome. 

Going forward, I hope that JSPL and other employers to take their corporate health strategy one step further through extending health education programmes to the families of employees, thereby touching the lives of your employees’ loved ones, and simultaneously helping more Singaporeans foster healthy lifestyles. In addition, I hope to see more employers, in their healthcare provider arrangements, move toward having “one family doctor for every Singaporean”. This is important because maintaining a healthy lifestyle and preventing or managing chronic illnesses often require substantial and sustained lifestyle changes in diet and exercise – changes that are easier said than done. A long-term relationship built on mutual trust and understanding between doctor and patient offers the best chance of these lifestyle changes being adopted.

I wish your collaboration every success.

Thank you.