SINGAPORE : The National Kidney Foundation has handed over the NKF Cancer Fund to the Singapore Cancer Society.
Both charities say the transfer will benefit cancer patients, as programmes are now streamlined and provided by one central organisation.
With the move, the NKF Cancer Fund will cease to exist.
Its patients, along with a balance of some S$2.95 million under the NKF Cancer Fund, will now be managed by the Singapore Cancer Society.
The society offered to help take care of the Cancer Fund when a public outcry in July threatened the viability of the NKF.
As part if its restructuring exercise to focus on helping kidney patients, NKF decided that the society, which has 40 years of experience caring for cancer patients, is the perfect fit to take over its cancer charity work.
Said Gerard Ee, chairman of NKF, "Singapore Cancer Society is well-known for its mission of helping cancer patients. And after talking with them, checking on their background, the board, their mission, their capabilities, we're very confident that they'll do a good job of continuing the work for the Cancer Fund.
"For the community, from the public's perspective, it's so much easier to have one organisation focused on cancer. So anyone who needs help because they are a cancer patient, go to the Singapore Cancer Society. There's no confusion -- why do you go to an organisation that's supposed to help kidney patients for help relating to cancer?"
The NKF Cancer Fund was set up in November last year.
In July, the first NKF Cancer Fund Charity Show raised S$11 million.
The show itself cost some S$5 million.
Some money has been used to help 113 cancer patients, which will now come under the Cancer Society.
But patients under the NKF Cancer Fund will not be affected.
The National Kidney Foundation and the Singapore Cancer Society say the patients will continue to receive the subsidies promised to them.
The amount of subsidy they get may change, though, after the society irons out the kinks from the handover.
Said Dr Koo Wen Hsin, chairman of the Singapore Cancer Society, "When we looked through the programmes and the beneficiaries that were handed over to us, we noticed a little bit of discrepancies between NKF and Cancer Society's criteria. We will comb through all the details once we receive all the documents, so that we make sure that every single dollar of public donation is well spent; every single item is well accounted for.
"For example, there are patients who receive assistance from Cancer Society and at the same time they also applied for assistance through NKF. So we will review their eligibility and criteria to see whether they should continue to receive assistance from both sides."
He added, "If there's indication for them to receive medical treatment under the assistance of the Cancer Society while receiving welfare from NKF, I think that's perfectly in order. But if they're receiving the same assistance from both organisations then it's justified for us to review the criteria."
The handover means the society will have over S$11 million to care for 800 over cancer patients.
Said Dr Koo, "This is certainly no windfall, because this amount of money is not going to last a long time. We will continue to raise funds so that we can continue to support these people."
NKF says the transfer will not result in any lay-offs, since none of its staff was employed to solely oversee the year-old NKF Cancer Fund.
NKF is now in talks with potential parties to take over the NKF Children's Medical Fund by early next year.
This comes as the foundation continues on its journey of rebuilding public trust.
As part of its transparency exercise, NKF has revamped its website.
The public can now look up information on its basic operating costs, donor and patient numbers on the website.
Mr Ee says four months since the public furore over former NKF chief executive TT Durai's bonuses and pay packages, fewer people have called to cancel their donation pledges.
But the foundation urgently needs to raise funds to build two dialysis centres, each costing S$2.5 million, to serve kidney patients in Woodlands and Ang Mo Kio.
NKF is expected to make public its reserves situation in December. - CNA /ct