IMPROVEMENTS MADE TO ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL AND PLANS TO OFFER SPECIAL MEDICAL SERVICES

Dr S Vasoo asked the Minister for Health what improvements have been made to Alexandra Hospital (AH) and whether there are plans to offer special medical services.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: As a regional hospital, AH is an important component of the national healthcare system. The Government has spent $36.5 million since 1991 to renovate physical facilities, including wards, operating theatres, intensive care units and the A&E Department, and to upgrade specialist outpatient services at AH. These improvements have resulted in better patient care, service delivery and efficiency.

AH offers a sufficiently wide range of specialities - general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedic surgery, anaesthesia and A&E - to cater to the needs of most patients. Since April 1995, these services have been augmented by NUS clinicians providing specialised outpatient consultations in a range of medical and surgical subspecialities, laboratory medicine and radiology.

AH also has a special niche in providing geriatric care for Singaporeans in the western part of Singapore. AH operates a Geriatric Day Hospital and a Geriatric Ward, and runs programmes on various aspects of geriatric care, including rehabilitation training, managing geriatric-orthopaedic cases and training care-givers in geriatric care.

The existing range of medical services is already quite comprehensive and is serving patients well. The Ministry has no plans at this time to introduce any additional special medical services in AH.