07 Oct 2010
SINGAPORE is likely to set up a geriatric specialist centre at the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) to meet the needs of an increasingly ageing population.
One in five people is expected to be 65 and older by 2030 – up from the 9 per cent now.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said such a centre will be extremely important when the population ages.
Last week, Professor K. Satku, the Health Ministry’s director of medical services, visited geriatric institutes in the United States to see what Singapore can learn from them. Speaking on the sidelines of the Healthcare Quality Improvement Conference at Suntec Convention Centre yesterday, Mr Khaw said: “It will not be a high-tech, high-cost type like a cancer or heart centre. There will be research and outreach programmes.”
The minister also hinted that a new hospital in the north-east will be up by 2020. If so, it will be the third this decade, following KTPH, which opened this year, and Jurong General Hospital, which is scheduled to open in 2014.
Planning for this hospital – likely to be in Sengkang or Punggol – has already begun, he said, with a couple of sites along the MRT track identified.
Mr Khaw wants new hospitals to be near public transport so they are convenient for patients and visitors.
Beyond this decade, he said, the need for more hospitals will depend on population growth as well as technological changes, which might reduce the need for hospitalisation.
But he plans to build more community hospitals – with at least one near each new general hospital.
Mr Khaw revealed that three masterplans are being drawn up to redevelop Singapore General Hospital (SGH) at Outram, National University Hospital at Kent Ridge and Tan Tock Seng Hospital at Novena.
While physical structures may last 50 to 60 years, “technical obsolescence” has set in, he said. Since seeing KTPH in Yishun, people now say SGH looks “rundown”.
“It’s functional, but the healing touch seems to be absent, while KTPH is very well ventilated with greenery all around,” he said.
Over the past few months, SGH has embarked on a tree-planting exercise with the help of National Parks Singapore.
Mr Khaw, who was warded at SGH when he had heart bypass surgery this year, approves of adding “low-cost and natural frills” to older hospitals where possible.
When he opened the conference, which attracted 1,700 local health-care practitioners and administrators, the minister described the system here as not perfect but not bad.
Singaporeans enjoy a high standard of health care, with universal coverage at a cost of only 4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product because of four decades of work towards quality care.
After strengthening the primary care services with modern polyclinics and free vaccinations for key diseases such as polio and measles, the country went on to rebuild pre-World War II hospitals.
Now, it is embarking on a new round to upgrade these buildings.
Singapore has also invested in its manpower, by sending many specialists for training at top hospitals overseas. Now, specialists here are helping to train others in the region.
Mr Khaw concluded: “Finally, with the large pieces in place, we have in recent years begun to focus on achieving high-quality health outcomes as a system.” This includes ensuring that all patients get appropriate care delivered correctly, he said.
Mr Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission in the United States, a body that accredits hospitals, spoke of the three challenges facing the US in his keynote speech at the conference.
It needs to reduce preventable complications, such as a patient catching an infection in hospital, increasing the cost of their treatment; cut waste from needlessly complex care; and do away with services where risks outweigh benefits.
Mr Chassin also spoke of the need to build trust in superiors and the system so problems can be identified and solved.
A US survey found that health-care workers felt intimidated when their superiors were impatient, spoke condescendingly and refused to answer questions or return calls. “These behaviours erode trust and stifle reporting of unsafe situations and practices,” he warned.
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Dept of Geriatric Medicine
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