Overhauled SGH will represent ‘future of healthcare’ in Singapore: PM Lee

SINGAPORE — When the two-decade overhaul of Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is complete, it will represent the “future of healthcare in Singapore, one that combines the best in facilities and technology, and puts the patient at the centre”, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the unveiling of the SGH Campus Masterplan today (Feb 5).

As the oldest hospital in Singapore, Mr Lee noted that SGH has a special place in many Singaporeans’ hearts, with some still affectionately referring to it as “See Pai Po” — a Hokkien term for when the hospital was located near the Sepoy Lines where the Indian soldiers had their camp in 1882.

Over the years, the hospital had been developed and expanded. Long corridors linked different parts of the hospital with different coloured lines painted on the floor to help illiterate patients get around, Mr Lee reminisced.

Today, the SGH campus is a major provider of care with 40 clinical specialities and patients from all over Singapore. “We have continued to improve and upgrade it since (1981), building some new buildings and repurposing existing ones. But we have not done a comprehensive re-planning and renewal of the campus... Therefore, it is timely for us to launch this masterplan and refresh the campus,” said Mr Lee.

The redevelopment will see delivery of better care with healthcare facilities expanding by three times, targeting areas expected to have the most demand like cancer, said Mr Lee.

The next 10 years will see changes such as a new National Cancer Centre Singapore building, an expanded Accident & Emergency Block, a new SGH Elective Care Centre that will also house the National Dental Centre Singapore, and the Outram Community Hospital slated to open by 2020.

In the second phase of redevelopment, the entire SGH hospital complex will be shifted closer to public transport nodes along Eu Tong Sen Street, as well as improved pedestrian and traffic networks across the entire campus.

A research zone marked out for commercial use will also integrate medical care, research and education to better understand diseases that affect Singaporeans. It will also help to find new and affordable ways to prevent and diagnose diseases and treat patients, said Mr Lee.

“Altogether, the campus will meet 40 per cent of our healthcare education needs in Singapore with more teaching and training facilities, and it will focus on integrated training - training doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, hospital staff together,” he added.

Even as the campus is upgraded, old buildings like the Bowyer block with the clock tower — the only block remaining since 1926 — will be preserved or repurposed to “remind us of our heritage”, said Mr Lee.

“It reminds us of how we have built and upgraded SGH over the years to serve Singaporeans and commemorates those who have given their lives and careers to public healthcare,” he added.

It would be a “musical chairs exercise” to keep the busy hospital running while shifting buildings and roads around, but 50 years would have passed since the redevelopment in 1981 by the time this master plan is completed, so it is “not at all too early to fit out and have a new campus” to serve the next generation of Singaporeans, said Mr Lee.