Polyclinic doctor by day, award-winning commander during ICT

SINGAPORE — As a doctor at Queenstown Polyclinic, Dr David Ng Chee Chin is no stranger to the demands of responding to patients’ needs.  

But as commanding officer of the 3rd Combat Support Hospital (3CSH), he also stands ready to respond to medical emergencies of a different order, such as being able to perform surgery on a soldier who has suffered a bullet wound in the abdomen, while out in the field with limited resources, in mere minutes. 

The 3CSH has been named the Best National Service Combat Service Support Unit in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Best Unit Competition this year.

It is the second time the unit has won in this category. 

The unit has participated in military exercises such as a 2013 humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and military medicine exercise, where some of them worked in the middle of a football field to provide dental and surgical assistance alongside armies from countries like Japan, Indonesia and Brunei.

All the unit’s surgeons are also surgeons by profession in various polyclinics and hospitals in Singapore. “If you go to a hospital, you can imagine running the hospital itself is a challenge, but out in the field is even more challenging,” said Lieutenant-Colonel (NS) Ng, 41, who has been in the unit since 1999. 

Operating in mobile medical containers with operating theatre functions and high dependency functions, the unit handles severe injuries and provides necessary surgeries to prioritised patients. The types of surgery they can handle range from orthopedic, such as fractures and amputations, to neurosurgery, such as brain and skull damage. 

But the unit also includes NSmen in non-medical professions serving as medics, and the mix adds to the total skillset of the unit. The medics, who are from industries like banking and business, had to “upscale (their medical proficiency) to be at that level and work with the doctors in all the procedures”, said LTC (NS) Ng.

One of the medics, an architect by profession, also helped the unit in the complicated planning of the layout for the mobile medical containers, which had many equipment, cables and lines.  Other non-medical personnel in the unit includes security forces, store men and drivers.

LTC (NS) Ng said the award was only possible because of the tight kinship in the unit. “I was very thankful, it has been a privilege because I had an excellent team of officers and men with me. There was this saying ‘if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together’,” he said.

Having been in the unit for around five years, orthopedic surgeon Captain (NS) Mizan Marican added: “All of us have a vested interest in reservist. We have loved ones in Singapore and we know that if we don’t defend Singapore and do our best, no one will. With that sort of philosophy, they come in with a great attitude.”

18 active and 11 NS units will be recognised in this year’s Best Unit Competition. They are judged based on components such as their participation rate in trainings, unit proficiency, and results of their individual physical proficiency test.

Among the other winners are the 1st Commando Battalion, who clinched their 30th win for Best Combat Unit, and the Republic of Singapore Air Force 140 Squadron who emerged Best Fighter Squadron for the 13th time.

President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen will be presenting the awards to the units this Friday (July 1) during the SAF Day Parade at the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute Military Institute.