MINISTRY OF HEALTH

Objectives

The quality and scope of the public medical service will be improved but Singaporeans must carry a fair share of the costs. Health planning will be geared to changing disease patterns. Concurrently, greater attention will be given to major prevailing illnesses such as lung cancer, coronary heart diseases, hypertension, mental illness and industrial diseases.

The medical service is a high value-added industry with economic potential. Demand in Singapore and the region for specialised medical services will increase. Singapore can become a regional medical centre. This objective will be achieved without sacrificing progress in the national health care system.

Medical Facilities

Better and more sophisticated facilities will be available when the new Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and the new Kent Ridge Hospital are completed by 1982 and 1985 respectively.

More Class B2 beds will be created in the new SGH and in existing hospitals. They were first introduced in Toa Payoh Hospital and Kandang Kerbau Hospital last year.

Progress in Clinical Work

The recently established Department of Nuclear Medicine in the new SGH will offer a wider range of diagnostic and therapeutic facilities, including scanning systems.

Coronary by-pass surgery is being undertaken by the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). This service was developed with assistance from a team of specialists in coronary by-pass surgery from Cleveland, United States, in March last year.

Doctors are being trained in microsurgery in the fields of Orthopaedic Surgery, Ophthalmology, ENT and Neurosurgery in SGH and TTSH.

Treatment for the mentally ill will be improved. Woodbridge Hospital will have more beds for acute cases to undergo longer inpatient treatment to minimise relapses. The opening of the Mandalay Day Centre in January this year will facilitate the rehabilitation of mental patients. This is a pilot scheme to provide discharged psychiatric patients with useful employment while recuperating from mental illness.

Primary Health Care and Health Education

Four new-type polyclinics were opened during the last two years. The Ang Mo Kio Polyclinic will become operational in mid-1981. More will be built in the HDB new towns.

Family Planning

The Singapore Family Planning and Population Board will discourage early marriages of people before 21 years and encourage the spacing of children.

Health Manpower

The quality of health service depends on the availability of good doctors and supporting personnel, especially nurses. More young doctors will be encouraged to specialise, particularly in fields which are most needed. Renowned foreign consultants will be invited for short teaching stints in Singapore. More qualified foreign nurses will be recruited when necessary. The intake of trainee nurses will be stepped up to meet national requirements.

GOH CHOK TONG Minister for Health