NEPALESE TWINS' MEDICAL EXPENSES

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NEPALESE TWINS' MEDICAL EXPENSES:

(Utilisation of balance of funds raised):

* 15. *Mr Baey Yam Keng asked the Minister for Health how will Singapore General Hospital assess Dr Keith Goh's request to utilise the balance of $58,000 in funds that were raised for the Nepalese twins' medical expenses.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Sir, this question is not for the Singapore General Hospital or the Ministry to assess or to decide. The donation fund is managed by the Nepalese Twins Fund Disbursement Committee which includes the Nepalese Honorary Consul General.

The fund is intended for the twins' medical expenses, not just the separation surgery which has already been done, but also post-surgery long-term treatment required as they grow up in Nepal. I assume the Fund Disbursement Committee will want to preserve the fund for as long as possible, and not to allow it to be prematurely depleted. For instance, if any treatment can be competently carried out in Nepal at lower cost, I assume the Committee will prefer that the treatment be carried out there. But this is really something for the Committee to decide.

I am told that the Committee has not received any recent application from Dr Keith Goh or any other doctor for the use of the fund.

Mr Baey Yam Keng: I thank the Minister for the answer. I would just like to clarify because reports said that the East Shore Hospital is supposed to apply to SGH to access the funds. So, I now hear from the Minister that there is a separate committee that is in charge of disbursing the fund. If I remember correctly, in 2000 when SGH decided to operate on the twins, that was before public donations poured in and given that now about $660,000 was given with public compassion for the purpose of

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treating the twins, is MOH or SGH in any way involved in the process of assessing the application for the use of funds because we are dealing with public donations here?

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Sir, like the Member, I have also read the report in the newspaper. Here is an example of not all news reports are factual. So you have to double check and the facts are what I have presented in my reply just now – that the Ministry of Health cannot be involved, in fact it is not involved, in the disbursement of the donation fund. Every time a fund is created, they will have to set up a committee with specific terms of reference and the committee has to operate within the terms of reference.

I think $600,000-odd donation was collected but what is left, I am told, is about $50,000-odd. How it will be spent will be decided by the committee within the terms of reference, which must be for the welfare of the twins. Unfortunately, Ganga has passed away, but Jamuna has survived.