Celebrating the Gift of Life. Gift of Hope.
Inaugural SingHealth Transplant Awareness Week, 12–16 July 2010
SingHealth institutions, including Singapore General Hospital, National Heart Centre Singapore, Singapore National Eye Centre and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, are coming together to celebrate the Inaugural SingHealth Transplant Awareness Week from 12 to 16 July 2010.
With the theme, “Gift of Life. Gift of Hope”, the aim is to raise awareness of organ donation and transplantation among our patients, staff and the public. The event will also recognise healthcare professionals and institutions across the nation, whose support has enabled the transplant programmes to grow, giving patients new life.
SingHealth Integrated Transplant Services
The Transplant Awareness Week marks the start of our efforts to align all our transplant services within the SGH Campus. All eight transplant programmes – kidney, liver, heart & lung, cornea, skin, cardiovascular homograft, bone marrow and cord blood – will be aligned under the umbrella of SingHealth Comprehensive Transplant Services.
Phase I will bring together transplant support staff and services. This will enable staff to become dedicated transplant experts, who will benefit from defined and structured career development plans as we continue to grow our transplant capabilities. In the future, this shared platform will enable us to provide further specialist tracks to healthcare professionals, such as pharmacists. This alignment will also help boost our efforts to raise awareness and educate the public about organ transplantation. As a collective voice, we will be better positioned as an advocate for transplantation and organ donation, and to grow our research efforts and further the science of transplantation.
Phase II will see the establishment of a specialist outpatient clinic for solid organ transplant patients by 2012. This includes kidney, liver, heart and lung transplant patients. Setting up a shared outpatient clinic will truly place transplant patients at the heart of our service by providing a one-stop facility that will further improve their experience of these patients.
Phase III will build on the shared outpatient clinic with the establishment of a dedicated solid organ transplant inpatient ward by 2015. As transplant patients stay with us for life, this will be the ward they will be admitted to for subsequent medical conditions requiring hospitalisation, regardless of whether these are directly related to the transplant.
“With integrated transplant services, we will harness the combined strengths of the programmes to improve patient outcomes and experience by streamlining clinical, operational and administrative processes. In addition, this will enable us to grow our research efforts in transplantation”, said Professor Tan Ser Kiat, Group Chief Executive Officer, SingHealth.
Since 1962, some 5,000 organ transplants have been carried out at the SGH campus, which has become a transplant hub for Singapore and the region.
Inaugural Transplant Awareness Week
Every year in Singapore, over 100 patients received a kidney, liver, heart, lung or corneal transplant either from a living or deceased donor. Singapore’s transplantation rate has been growing steadily but the number of patients who require a transplant is also on the rise.
Transplantation however would not be possible without the generosity and sacrifice of donors. The Transplant Awareness Week celebrates the act of giving life and hope. It is an extremely courageous and selfless gesture when an organ donor, or the family of a donor, makes the decision to donate an organ to save someone’s life.
We also salute our transplant teams for their dedication and efforts as they work tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to counsel donors’ families and ensure transplants are carried out safely and effectively. In particular, we recognise the role of transplant coordinators and medical social workers, who have the difficult job of talking to families at a time of extreme grief about donating their loved one’s organs to save another’s life.