Longer waiting times at A&Es at CGH, SKH and TTSH
Longer waiting times at A&Es at CGH, SKH and TTSH
SINGAPORE – Changi General Hospital (CGH) and Sengkang General Hospita l (SKH) are seeing a high number of patients at their emergency departments, and this has resulted in longer waiting times.
In a notice on its website , Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) said that there are longer than usual waiting times at the emergency department, and that admission may require a few hours.
Only people with serious or life-threatening emergencies should go to its emergency department, CGH and SKH said on May 14 in separate social media posts.
This allows medical professionals to attend to those with critical conditions and in need of emergency care.
CGH and SKH urged those experiencing mild to moderate symptoms like cough, sore throat, or runny nose, to visit general practitioners (GPs) or Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPCs). Members of the public can find a PHPC at www.phpc.gov.sg.
ST has contacted the Ministry of Health for more information.
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Straits Times
30-07-2025
- Straits Times
TTSH initiative aims to address osteoporosis in older patients with wrist fractures
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE - In 2020, Mr Chong Kee Kong was on an escalator with his grandson when the boy bent down to pick up his pacifier and lost his footing. While trying to stop his grandson from falling, Mr Chong, now 79, tumbled down the escalator himself, earning an abrasion and a fractured left wrist. After undergoing surgery to repair the fracture, Mr Chong found out that he had osteoporosis – a bone disease characterised by an increased fracture risk due to the deterioration of bone tissue. To help people like him, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) has started a service aimed at proactively diagnosing osteoporosis in patients aged 50 and above who have had wrist fractures, and managing their conditions. TTSH hand and reconstructive microsurgery department senior consultant Mala Satku said the hospital sees about 600 people aged 50 and above with distal radius fractures, or broken wrists, each year. In 2022, the hospital reviewed more than 2,500 patients aged 50 and above who had suffered low-impact wrist fractures between 2013 and 2016. It found that of the 1,034 patients who had undergone subsequent screening, 56 per cent were found to have osteoporosis, while 37.4 per cent were found to have osteopenia, a less severe condition which can eventually lead to osteoporosis. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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As Singapore's population ages – with a quarter of the country's population expected to be aged 65 and above by 2030 – wrist fractures are increasingly becoming a concern, Dr Mala said, noting the average age of patients with such fractures to be about 68. While osteoporosis is sometimes thought of as a women's disease, it also affects men, she said, noting that one in five men have osteoporosis, compared with one in three women. She said that while older patients with hip and spine fractures are often screened for osteoporosis, this is not the case for those with wrist fractures. However, wrist fractures can be an indicator of a greater risk of hip and spine fractures, she added. 'Studies have shown that anyone with a wrist fracture has a 5.6 times higher risk of a hip fracture compared with someone who doesn't have a wrist fracture,' she said. Addressing osteoporosis in patients with wrist fracture can help reduce this risk, said Dr Mala . She said studies have shown that active osteoporosis care after a patient suffers a wrist fracture can lead to an 86 per cent reduction in hip fractures, as well as a 65 per cent reduction in all other subsequent fractures. The new initiative, said Dr Mala who is leading it, involves first treating the wrist fracture, either through surgery or the use of a cast. A bone mineral density scan, typically done using a low-radiation X-ray to measure the presence of minerals such as calcium in bone, is conducted to diagnose osteoporosis. During follow-up visits, patients undergo rehabilitation and monitoring of the fracture. 'At the same time, there is also evaluation and treatment of osteoporosis by our panel nurses,' she said, noting that this is often done during the same appointment to save patients' time. Even after their fractures heal, patients whose bone densities remain low are referred to polyclinics or their general practitioners for ongoing management. Osteoporosis treatment is typically a long-term affair, conducted across three to five years, with regular reviews and scans done at the TTSH Hand Surgery Clinic. Treatment can include shots of the drug denosumab, to strengthen bone, in addition to exercise and adjusting a patient's diet to include more calcium. The programme has seen a 60 per cent increase in the number of wrist fracture patients screened for osteoporosis at TTSH after a pilot, which ran between 2021 and 2023, Dr Mala said. Meanwhile, the number of patients seen for osteoporosis care after wrist fractures tripled between 2022 and 2025 under the programme, which won merit awards at the NHG Quality Day Awards in 2022 and 2023. TTSH aims to expand the service to other institutions under the NHG Health cluster. 'We would like as many patients as possible to benefit from this programme and discussions are in place,' said Dr Mala, noting however, that a timeline for such an expansion had not yet been set. Mr Chong has since recovered from the fracture, and said the interventions have helped him get stronger, in addition to addressing his osteoporosis. 'I can now carry up to 5kg,' he said.
Straits Times
17-07-2025
- Straits Times
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The care model was shared at the Singapore Trauma and Acute Care Conference (STACC) 2025, held at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre from July 17 to 18. Trauma is a form of injury caused by an external force . Many such patients suffer multiple injuries or damage in multiple regions, whether from traffic accidents, bad falls or penetrating wounds. It ranks among the top 10 causes of death in Singapore, with falls and road accidents being leading causes of moderate to severe trauma injuries. According to the National Trauma Registry (NTR), there were about eight trauma cases per 100,000 population treated at the public healthcare institutions daily between 2021 and 2023, with almost seven in 10 of the moderate to severe cases involving the elderly aged 65 and above. About one in five patients with severe trauma did not survive and one in 50 with moderate trauma died . Although the hub-and-spoke trauma care model is not a new idea , the one here has a 'bi-directional patient flow', setting it apart from existing ones elsewhere. 'Unlike most uni-directional systems where the hub takes every trauma case first, our model allows for a critically injured victim of, say, of a bad road accident, to be brought the nearest (periphery) hospital to be stabilised before transferring him to TTSH for the complex, life-threatening emergency treatment,' said Dr Teo, who is also the regional director of the Central Region Trauma Services from NHG Health. 'Once emergency treatment is complete and the patient is stabilised, he can be transferred back to the 'spoke' hospital for follow-up rehabilitation, or even to a hospital closer to their residence for ongoing care,' he added. If the patient is not stable enough for transfer , surgeons from the hub can go to the periphery hospitals instead. The bi-directional operation significantly reduces the burden on the main trauma centre at TTSH, making more efficient use of resources and 'reflecting a right-sited, patient-centred approach,' Dr Teo said. Using the analogy of a jar of kaya and several pieces of sliced bread, Dr Teo said: 'The kaya in this case is finite, so how do we adequately spread it around to the increasing slices of bread or even concentrate the kaya to make sure that at least everybody gets enough for taste? That's the challenge. We have to ensure that the patients get adequate care to allow them the chance for survival.' In order for the hub-and-spoke model to work, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) plays a crucial role as its first responders decide where to transport patients based on the type and severity of their injuries, Dr Teo said. 'Even with Singapore's small size and short transport times, that extra five minutes taking the critically injured patient to the hub is crucial for him to fare better,' he said. The hub-and-spoke model is still being developed, as some hospitals in the central region are 'at various stages of their maturity', said Dr Teo, who pointed out that Sengkang Hospital and Woodlands Health are the two newest hospitals. In comparison, the TTSH trauma centre has been working with Sengkang Hospital since 2016. 'We are trying to fully roll this (model) out by September this year, and hopefully it will then be the prototype for the rest of the healthcare groups to adopt,' Dr Teo, said.
Straits Times
13-06-2025
- Straits Times
More studies being done to help Singapore residents take charge of their health
More studies being done to help Singapore residents take charge of their health SINGAPORE – In Toa Payoh, surveyors are making house visits, spending up to 45 mins in each home to gather information about residents' health and lifestyles. The questions range from what they do for a living to how many friends and relatives they connect with at least once a month and whether they have caregiving responsibilities. All the answers feed into a five-year research programme aimed at improving residents' health outcomes. The Health4All@Toa Payoh study by the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) was launched in March 2025. It has recruited about half of its target of 4,000 participants aged between 35 and 70 years. In this longitudinal study, participants – Singapore citizens or Permanent Residents residing in Toa Payoh – will be followed over five years through annual online surveys. Interviews and focus group discussions will also be held with groups of participants. Researchers want to understand how non-medical factors, such as daily activities, social networks, and living environments, affect the residents' health. Such factors, known as the social determinants of health, are widely believed to contribute to 80 per cent of health outcomes, while medical care accounts for an estimated 20 per cent. The data collected will be used to design personalised health solutions for residents. The study comes as Singapore pivots from traditional patient-centred care to a resident-centred approach. This is to help the population take charge of their health so that they can spend more years in good health as they age. A key move was in July 2023 when Singapore launched Healthier SG to get residents to enrol with a family doctor and focus on preventive care. Professor Teo Yik Ying, vice-president for global health and dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS, described Healthier SG as the first major reform of Singapore's health system. Rather than focusing solely on treating the sick, the programme aims to help the population stay healthy. But designing solutions to achieve that goal – which could include getting the community to form online networks – requires a deeper understanding of people's lives, said Associate Professor Angela Chow, the programme director of Health4All@Toa Payoh. What is lacking now is the understanding of how and what type of social networks influence health, said the senior consultant at TTSH's Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine. 'How can we leverage our social networks to help us improve our health, and especially using community resources to do that?' she said. Her department head, Adjunct Assistant Professor Lim Wei-Yen, who is also the study's principal investigator , noted that many health studies capture only traditional risk factors such as physical activity, diet and smoking. However, people's lived environments, life circumstances, and social networks can shape not only their health behaviours but also their health literacy, he said. Knowing how significant life events like bereavement or divorce can influence a person's well-being and health will enable the team to find ways of supporting residents and identify opportunities for early intervention, he added. TTSH is part of the National Healthcare Group (NHG), one of the three clusters that manage Singapore's public healthcare system. Prof Chow said the lessons gleaned from various studies of different population groups in Singapore are meant to be shared across the healthcare clusters so that successful strategies in one region can be scaled up and tested in other areas. If another research team discover an effective approach, the NHG team would also want to see how they can pilot it for the population under their care, she said. Each of the three healthcare clusters covers a specific geographic area. The central region is managed by NHG, the western region by the National University Health System (NUHS), and the eastern region by Singapore Health Services (SingHealth). Each cluster – expected to look after up to 1.5 million people – gets paid for each resident, regardless of whether the person is healthy or not. At SingHealth, its population health research include an ongoing four-year study to understand residents' sentiments on the various aspects of Healthier SG, with the goal of improving its implementation. In 2023, some 5,000 participants around Singapore were asked about their beliefs and attitudes towards enrolling in Healthier SG and their expectations. SingHealth then surveyed another group of more than 2,000 participants in the eastern region in 2024 about their enrolment status and their experience with Healthier SG. A key finding was that residents were unsure about the community resources that their general practitioners (GPs) can refer them to, said Associate Professor Low Liang Leng, director of the SingHealth Centre for Population Health Research and Implementation (CPHRI). 'Our community nurses and well-being coordinators now work with the GPs so that they can refer their patients to us, and we will help them to navigate the community services required,' he added. SingHealth plans to continue engaging different groups to understand their views on other aspects of Healthier SG. In the west, NUS is conducting the second phase of the Baseline Study for Health District @ Queenstown to evaluate new factors such as financial literacy and caregiving. The study's first phase, completed in the first half of 2024, involved over 5,000 Queenstown residents aged 21 to 102 years old. It discovered that about two-thirds of the respondents above 65 years old did not actively participate in activities such as exercising, volunteering and learning, among other findings. A range of initiatives and programmes have been introduced in Queenstown since the health district pilot – spearheaded by NUS, NUHS and HDB – was launched in October 2021 to promote healthy longevity. A recent initiative was the Happy Village @ Mei Ling, a shared community space at Block 160 Mei Ling Street that officially opened in March. Residents can receive health counselling, join exercise classes and attend monthly health talks and workshops. With three healthcare clusters operating autonomously, there is bound to be some variations in their operations. A clear disadvantage of such a varied approach is the confusion it may cause for the average Singaporean, who may not be aware that some programmes are unique to specific clusters, said Prof Teo. However, the upside is that having a variety of programmes provides an opportunity for the country to test out different strategies to find out what works best, he said. A system is then needed to test and evaluate the different approaches – scaling those that are effective and discontinuing others that consistently underdeliver, he added. 'Health is multifaceted and affected by a range of factors, and it is not wrong that different clusters may prioritise different perspectives or determinants,' he said. 'However, we should ultimately have one single narrative of population health that Singapore wishes to have its people understand, and ensure the clusters conform to this.' Prof Teo said that Singapore is amongst the few countries in the world that are finding solutions to rapid demographic transitions and escalating healthcare costs. The goals of the healthcare clusters also align with Healthier SG's vision: fostering a healthier, more health-literate population within an environment that promotes healthy behaviours and improves overall health, he said. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
