In response to the dire needs of victims of the recent Tsunami disaster, SingHealth is committed to assist in all possible means in the form of healthcare professionals assisting site, medical supplies and funds. SingHealth will be sending out more healthcare professionals from its cluster of public healthcare institutions to disaster-affected areas in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
A 4-member SingHealth team will join the Singapore Red Cross mission to Sri Lanka on Wednesday, January 5, 2005. The SingHealth volunteers comprise 1 paediatrician and 2 paediatric nurses from KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), and 1 Infectious Disease consultant from Singapore General Hospital (SGH) – as part of the contingent setting out to Trincomalee of Sri Lanka.
The SingHealth team members are:
Dr Asok Kurup, Consultant, Infectious Disease Unit, SGH
Dr Lee Jiun, Consultant, Department of Neonatology, KKH
Ms Vannaja Nadeson, Senior Nurse Clinician, KKH
Ms Evelyn Lim, Nurse Clinician, KKH
Another team of 10 SingHealth healthcare professionals (doctors & nurses) is scheduled to leave for Banda Aceh, Indonesia this week. This will be the second group of volunteers to Aceh. The first team left for Aceh on 31 December 2004 on board the RSS Endurance navy ship as part of the Singapore Armed Forces humanitarian mission. The 10 SingHealth staff fielding the second Aceh mission will be led by Dr Vincent Yeow, Consultant, Plastic Surgeon, SGH/ Head of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, KKH.
The first mission team in Aceh has settled in and is doing well since they arrived off the coast of Meulaboh on January 2, 2005. They brought along with them supplies such as bandages, gloves, painkillers, antibiotics and vitamins. The members of the team are:
Dr Low Cheng Ooi, Head & Senior Consultant, Orthopaedic Surgery, CGH
Dr Yong Wei Sean, Consultant, National Cancer Centre
Dr Tan Tong Khee, Consultant, Department of Anaesthesia, SGH
Ms Linda Chen Swee Yin, Nurse Clinician, CGH
Ms Noridah Bte Rahman, Staff Nurse, CGH
Ms Jamilah Bte Mingan, Senior Staff Nurse (Major Operating Theatres), SGH
Ms Teh Wooi Ming, Senior Staff Nurse (Major Operating Theatres), SGH
At the same time, Dr Mohan Tiru, CGH’s A&E consultant, left for Phuket, Thailand, on December 29, 2004 with a team from the Singapore Civil Defence Force team.
One of the SingHealth team members, Dr Tan Tong Khee, Consultant, Department of Anaesthesia, SGH, who is currently at Aceh updated via email to his department head, "We have started work in Meulaboh. There have been about 10,000 more dead and many cases of orthopaedic injuries and wounds. We have many local doctors from different parts of Indonesia helping out in the field but no nurses. This is because most of the nurses are in mourning for their families, or had already passed on during the disaster. The primary
healthcare professionals have been working very hard round-the-clock and we are helping them out in addition to the A&E requirements. We will be starting on operations and surgeries soon. Life is quite hard here but still a good and meaningful experience. Our nurses have been cheering us on and their usual efficiency and thoroughness set the standards and got the systems going for us all."
Apart from these teams, more healthcare volunteers from SingHealth institutions are also on stand-by for future deployment should the need arise.
On the home front, SingHealth has been keeping in regular contact with its volunteers on the field to ensure their safety and render immediate assistance when needed. As part of the organisation’s welfare efforts, SingHealth has also been providing regular updates to the volunteers’ family members. Staff are also given fully paid time-off to volunteer in tsunami-affected areas. SingHealth has also provided them the necessary travel vaccinations and insurance coverage.
In addition, SingHealth and its institutions have initiated a fund-raising drive among its 12,000 staff, across the cluster, to raise funds to purchase and deliver emergency items such as medicine, first aid, food and relief supplies for the victims of the tsunami disaster.