SingHealth will be sending out more healthcare professionals from its cluster of public healthcare institutions to disaster-affected areas in Sri Lanka and Indonesia in response to the dire needs of the Tsunami victims.
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, who are tasked to administer primary healthcare assistance and paediatric expertise, 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
The team will leave tonight, Tuesday January 5, 2005, on SQ402 from Changi Airport Terminal 2. The team will be sent off at 8.00pm before their flight departs at 10.30am.
On January 6, 2005, a team of 10 SingHealth healthcare professionals (doctors & nurses) will leave for Banda Aceh, Indonesia. This second SingHealth team to Aceh comprises mainly surgical healthcare professionals from the SingHealth hospitals. They will provide primary healthcare assistance and surgeries where necessary. This team is led by Dr Vincent Yeow, Consultant, Plastic Surgeon, SGH/ Head of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, KKH. The other members are:-
Dr Shani Tan, Senior Consultant, Anaesthesia, KKH
Dr Loh Lik Eng, Registrar, Paediatrics, KKH
Dr Chan Beng Kuen, Consultant, Orthopaedic Surgeon, CGH
Dr Lee Pang, Consultant, Anaesthesia, SGH
Mr Jumat Khan, Senior Staff Nurse, KKH
Ms McEune Mee Lin, Nurse Manager KKH
Mr Mohamad Rizal bin Mohd Razali, Senior Registered Nurse, Ward 55B, SGH
Ms Cheah Mee Wen, Major OT, Senior Staff Nurse, SGH
Ms Chan Sook Wee, Major OT, Staff Nurse, SGH
They will leave from the Paya Lebar Airbase at 7.45am on January 6, 2005. The team will be sent-off at 6.45am by the Minister for Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan.
SingHealth has deployed 3 volunteer teams at the Tsunami-affected areas to date. They bring with them supplies of bandages, gloves, painkillers, antibiotics, vitamins, and necessary surgical items.
The first SingHealth team of 7 healthcare professionals left for Aceh on 31 December 2004 and has been at Meulaboh, Aceh since January 2, 2005. 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.
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.