03 Jun 2011
By: FIONA LOW, POON CHIAN HUI
OLDER restructured hospitals are revamping their facilities to keep up with the health-care needs of Singapore’s growing population.
Apart from two new hospitals in Sengkang and Jurong which are being built, renovations are also ongoing in four of the older medical centres to upgrade facilities and boost capacity.
They are Changi General Hospital (CGH), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and National University Hospital (NUH). The upgrades range from bigger clinics and wards to brand-new centres and buildings.
CGH, which currently has the country’s busiest Accident & Emergency (A&E) department, is undergoing major infrastructure changes to better deal with the heavy patient load.
A $9 million revamp will see a new fever unit used to isolate patients running a temperature before they are diagnosed, as well as more observation beds – from 12 to 29 by the end of this year.
The hospital’s chief operating officer, Ms Selina Seah, said there has been a 30 per cent increase in patient load in the A&E department since 2003, and the hospital is currently operating at full capacity.
“CGH is transforming the way it delivers health care to the community and hence we need to upgrade the building, reorganise our space as well as put in place new facilities and amenities,” she added.
Nine of the beds in A&E will come under a new Extended Diagnostic Treatment unit which will cater to patients who require longer observation periods – between six and 23 hours. Previously, such patients would have to be warded.
Some $10 million will also be pumped into renovating 12 specialist outpatient clinics which will be completed at the end of next year. New features will include self-registration booths to cut waiting times, as well as new fold-down seating to accommodate patients in wheelchairs.
A $700,000 Same-day Admission Ward will also be built by the end of the year. The new facility will cater to patients who are waiting for surgery. This will reduce the amount of time they need to be warded and free up more bed spaces.
Over at KKH, new specialist clinics have sprung up in the last few years, said Ms Chong Pik Wan, the hospital’s chief development officer. These include a new Cardiac Centre, Children’s Medical Centre and Gynaecological Cancer Centre.
Existing facilities, such as the Children’s Emergency ward, are also undergoing a facelift, she added.
Over at SGH, major renovation works planned include a new National Heart Centre building and a new research and education facility.
Slated to be operational in 2013, the new Heart Centre building will be able to double its existing capacity. The centre now handles more than 100,000 outpatient consultations, 7,000 interventional and surgical procedures, and 10,000 inpatients yearly.
A new 13-storey twin tower building will also be ready by 2013 to house SGH’s pathology services and SingHealth’s research, education and training facilities.
A specialist outpatient clinic grouping together all solid organ transplant patients will be ready next year while inpatient wards will be ready in 2015.
Similarly, NUH started renovating its main building last September to create more clinic space – its first such overhaul in 26 years.
And by 2013, a 20-storey medical centre above the upcoming Kent Ridge MRT station will be built. It will house outpatient clinics.
The upgrades are spurred by the heavier hospital workload, which has risen by about 20 per cent over the last five years, said NUH’s chief executive, Mr Joe Sim.
These projects come on top of the already completed expansions of the dental and heart centres.
A new Hand and Reconstructive Microsurgery Centre was also recently completed in April. Later this year, the hospital will be expanding its emergency department. Roads within the NUH campus will be widened to cater to more motorists.
Despite the flurry of construction work planned, steps have been taken to ensure that patient service is not affected, said the hospitals.
At KKH, for instance, work is being carried out in a phased manner to ensure minimal impact on patient services, said Ms Chong.
Email: fional@sph.com.sg, chpoon@sph.com.sg
Click for jpeg format
« Back to previous
page
back to top