New facilities at Changi General Hospital to boost healthcare delivery

SINGAPORE: The Eastern Health Alliance has launched two new facilities which promise to boost healthcare delivery.

President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Health Minister Gan Kim Yong were among the first to tour the innovation and simulation hubs located at Changi General Hospital.

In a mock—up scenario, a SARS patient has collapsed and the doctors and nurses are working to resuscitate him.

The "patient" is a mannequin that mimics physiological responses to stress and illnesses.

Such simulation gives the healthcare workers precious practice in dealing with emergency scenarios.

The centre is also set up with an integrated audio—visual system so that training can be played back, analysed and improved.

Simulation laboratories at the Changi Simulation Institute can be converted to replicas of different clinical care areas such as operating theatre, intensive care unit and general ward.

At the Centre for Innovation, healthcare providers and industry partners brainstorm on how to make patients’ experience better.

Ideas in the pipeline include a hospital bed that will alert caregivers when a patient attempts to get out of it.

T K Udairam, Group CEO of Eastern Health Alliance, said: "We don’t just look at drugs or people in white coats doing experiments, but it’s actually the everyday staff looking at the processes, trying to figure out what’s the best way to deliver the care they want to provide. The environment and the care that the patient receives is as important as the medicine and the surgeries that we do for patients."

— CNA/de