Singapore General Hospital
The Singapore General Hospital is a tertiary referral hospital in Singapore, located next to Bukit Merah and Chinatown and serviced by Outram Park MRT station. It is the largest and oldest hospital in Singapore, with the foundation of its first building laid in 1821. SGH was ranked as the third best hospital in the world by Newsweek in 2019.
SGH is operated by SingHealth and is the principal teaching hospital for the Duke–NUS Medical School. Its campus includes four national specialty centres, namely the Singapore National Eye Centre, the National Heart Centre Singapore, the National Cancer Centre Singapore and the National Dental Centre Singapore.
History
The Singapore General Hospital was established in 1821, when the first General Hospital was located in the cantonment for British troops near the Singapore River. It later shifted to Pearl Banks apartment and then to the Kandang Kerbau district, before finally settling at Sepoy Lines along Outram Road in 1882.The modern history of Singapore General Hospital began on 29 March 1926, with the opening of 800 beds in the Bowyer, Stanley and Norris Blocks. Today, only the Bowyer Block with its historically distinctive clock tower remains. The Bowyer Block is now home to the Singapore General Hospital Museum.
In 1981, the hospital was rebuilt, with its current 8-block complex housing in-patient wards, ambulatory and support services, research laboratories and a postgraduate medical institute.
On 1 April 1989, the hospital was restructured, in an effort to modernise the organisation of the hospital, due to rapidly developing changes in healthcare services and patient expectations for better service. As a restructured hospital, the Singapore General Hospital is still 100 per cent government-owned and is a not-for-profit institution. More than 60 per cent of the beds are allocated for subsidised patients, giving them access to an internationally established standard of affordable healthcare.
On 31 March 2000, following a major reorganisation of the public sector healthcare services initiated by the Ministry of Health, the Singapore General Hospital came under the management of Singapore Health Services or SingHealth.
National specialty centres
Singapore National Eye Centre
Singapore National Eye Centre is a specialty centre for ophthalmological services and is the largest ophthalmology specialist centre in Singapore. It was founded in 1990 to lead and organise specialised ophthalmological services with special emphasis on research and education. Since its inauguration, SNEC has averaged an annual workload of 14,000 major eye surgeries and 13,000 laser procedures. The SNEC also actively participates in clinical trials and researches the causes to find treatments to eye conditions such as myopia and glaucoma.SNEC's facilities includes 50 consultation suites, 9 operating theatres, research facilities, offices and a library in two adjoining buildings.
National Cancer Centre Singapore
The National Cancer Centre Singapore is the country's national specialty centre for the diagnosis, research and treatment of cancer. The centre has Singapore's largest concentration of oncologists. It was originally established in 1993 as a unit of Singapore General Hospital, and subsequently became an autonomous institution of SingHealth.The centre's founding director is Professor Soo Khee Chee. NCCS provides a range of medical, educational and research activities within a single institution; and practices a multi-disciplinary approach to diagnosis and treatment. It is Southeast Asia's only full multi-disciplinary sub-specialist centre for cancer.
In addition, the centre is a teaching institution for post-graduate cancer education that trains and offers fellowships for many local and overseas doctors, nurses, para-medical professionals and researchers.
National Heart Centre Singapore
The National Heart Centre Singapore is a specialist medical centre and a regional referral centre for cardiovascular diseases. Established in 1994 as the Singapore Heart Centre in the Singapore General Hospital, the heart centre took over the hospital's cardiac services and set up a cardiology laboratory in 1995. It was renamed in 1998. In 2014, NHCS completed its move to a new purpose-built building at 5 Hospital Drive. The new building not only includes facilities for outpatient clinics and non-invasive testing, but also has operating theatres and an invasive cardiac catheterisation laboratory.With over 9,000 inpatient admissions every year, the 186-bed specialty centre for cardiovascular disease in Singapore offers treatments from preventive to rehabilitative cardiac services.
National Dental Centre Singapore
The National Dental Centre Singapore is a facility in Singapore for specialist oral healthcare services. It commenced operations on 1 March 1997 and claims to offer the largest concentration of specialist expertise in a single facility. Its specialist teams attend to over 700 patients daily, including walk-in patients and those being referred to the centre. The centre is equipped with 92-chair facility and a day surgery suite.The centre has three specialist clinical departments, being the Departments of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics and Restorative Dentistry, which attend to a wide range of oral conditions. In addition, Department of Restorative Dentistry also has sub-units in Endodontics, Paediatric Dentistry, Periodontics and Prosthodontics. Sub-speciality multidisciplinary services are available through NDCS's Centres for Corrective Jaw Surgery, Maxillofacial Rehabilitation and Facial Pain.
The centre is active in research as well as training activities, especially focusing on the professional education of dentists. NDCS has been under the management of Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd since 2002.
The SGH Museum
The Singapore General Hospital Museum is a repository of artefacts and records, where visitors can trace the long and rich history of the Singapore General Hospital. It is also a place where one can learn about the development of medical specialties and medical education in Singapore, presented with the aid of audio-visual and multimedia technology.The SGH Museum was officially opened by President SR Nathan on 20 May 2005. The museum adopts a thematic approach in presenting the hospital's long history, where visitors get not just an insight into the significant developments of the hospital through the years, but also an understanding of the impact these incidents have on the people and the community.