ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL (Upgrading of facilities)

Dr S. Vasoo asked the Minister for Health whether the facilities at Alexandra Hospital will be further upgraded and if the current services are adequate to meet the demand.

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: Mr Speaker, Sir, the upgrading programme for Alexandra Hospital costing a total of $28.4 million commenced in early 1992 and is expected to be completed by the end of 1995.

The upgrading works that have been completed to date include:-

(a) Creation of a new Day Surgery Suite which has two Operating Theatres and 11 Day beds.

(b) Renovation and upgrading of wards, Intensive Care Unit and four Major Operating Theatres. The wards are being renovated in stages. So far, the renovation works in six wards have been completed. The newly renovated wards have modern nurse call systems, piped-in medical gases, proper nurses stations, staff work areas and purpose-built isolation rooms. The operating theatres are equipped with proper induction and post-operative recovery areas.

(c) A Day Hospital for the elderly has been built and has started operation on 4th July 1994.

(d) Road improvements for smoother vehicular traffic flow within the hospital, a second entry point into the hospital and additional car park lots for the public.

Seven more wards and the Theatre Surgical Supplies Unit will be renovated. The X- ray Department is also being redeveloped, after which a Computerised Tomographic (CT) Scanner will be installed in early 1995. Lecture rooms and staff training facilities will also be provided.

The current facilities and services are adequate to meet public demand. When the upgrading works are completed, Alexandra Hospital would have the facilities of a good secondary hospital.

Dr S. Vasoo (Tanjong Pagar GRC): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister what would be the future of this hospital in view of the amount of resources that has been pumped into it to improve the facilities.

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: We intend to continue operating the hospital up to the early part of the next century. Beyond that, we have to study population patterns in Singapore and the need for additional hospital beds.