NUH to house new heart, cancer centres
Existing ones are stretched, while greying population will drive demand
By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
TWO new national specialist centres will be set up at the National University Hospital to meet the growing need for heart and cancer treatments.
The two existing centres next to the Singapore General Hospital in Outram are already stretched, even as demand for specialist care in dealing with Singapore's top two killers grows.
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The National Cancer Centre is running out of room. It had to move its cafe into the car park and take over space from the nearby Health Promotion Board.
The pattern is similar for heart problems, with the number of outpatient treatments set to jump from 200,000 a year now to 320,000 by 2015.
The 13-year-old National Heart Centre, which treats about half the heart patients, had to start Saturday clinics for its subsidised patients this year, to cope with the demand.
'It is really chock-a-block now. Every nook and cranny is being made use of,' said Mr Khaw.
Looking ahead, he said: 'I'm asking the existing specialty centres to aim higher. Centres like the Singapore National Eye Centre...ought to look at their role as the referral centres of the region.'
Once again, the Health Minister is ignoring the poor Singaporean patients and concentrating on being the "referral centres of the region" for the rich Indonesians....
Where is the Yishun hospital that was supposed to be built by 2006 and serve the HDB estates in the north? Conveniently forgotten once the election is over. Instead we are building fancy new centres to serve the "Region". Only thing is, the "region" Khaw is coming from is not Singapore but Malaysia!!!
So it is OK if TTSH A&E is "chock-a-block now" and Singaporeans with heart attacks have to wait at the A&E. but it NOT OK if rich Indonesians cannot get their cancer appointment?
Besides, NCC is a 6 storey building - only the first 2 floors are being used for clinics (the rest is for research & admin) - what is he talking about when he says there is no more space? He so concerned about creating space, move his huge colonial MOH building out of SGH and use it for clinics lah! If u go to MOH, you will see the first floor is nothing but an EMPTY lobby with a GRAND (like victoria concert hall) staircase leading up to his office! While across the road, A&E patients are being double- or triple-parked side by side in the CORRIDOR.
