CEO Succession at SCH

​10 February 2023

MEDIA RELEASE

CEO Succession at SingHealth Community Hospitals

Singapore, 10 February 2023 – SingHealth today announced a key leadership change at SingHealth Community Hospitals (SCH), which oversees SingHealth’s group of community hospitals comprising Bright Vision Community Hospital, Sengkang Community Hospital and Outram Community Hospital. Ms Margaret Lee, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), SCH, will relinquish her appointment from 1 March 2023. Dr Gan Wee Hoe, currently Deputy CEO, SCH, will succeed Ms Lee as CEO, SCH.

As the founding CEO of SCH, Ms Lee led in the establishment of Singapore’s first public cluster of community hospitals with the successful opening of Sengkang Community Hospital and Outram Community Hospital, as well as the smooth integration of Bright Vision Community Hospital into SCH. Her six years of leadership saw SCH establish itself as a trusted provider of rehabilitative, sub-acute and palliative care in Singapore, focused on bridging care across different healthcare settings and transiting patients seamlessly from the hospital setting into their homes and the community.

Ms Lee also seeded and oversaw many initiatives that forged and enhanced hospital-community partnerships, and strengthened care in the community. These include “green lanes” that give patients faster access to rehabilitation programmes, compassionate palliative programmes that accord dignified and gentle care for patients in their last days, as well as a comprehensive programme for dementia patients that builds awareness and innovates care for the condition, including improving dementia care facilities.

Under her leadership, SCH set up the SCH Office of Learning to build capability and capacity in the Intermediate and Long-Term Care (ILTC) and social care sectors, alongside partners in the education industry, to empower the community to better care for residents. SCH also started the Social Prescribing programme to strengthen patients’ social health factors to enable better integration into the community. These initiatives, which are aligned to the Ministry of Health’s Healthier SG roadmap, have improved the quality of life for patients beyond their stay in the hospital.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms Lee also led SCH to re-design and transform Bright Vision Community Hospital into a dedicated COVID-19 care facility, offering much needed support to the nation’s efforts in battling the pandemic.

“Community hospitals are a crucial part of the healthcare continuum as they focus on the specific care needs of patients who require rehabilitative, sub-acute or palliative care. Enabling holistic recuperation for a patient goes beyond the clinical aspects. Margaret has been instrumental in leading SingHealth’s group of community hospitals to establish important partnerships in the community and social care sectors that facilitate integrated, person-centred care for our patients in and beyond our hospitals. We are grateful for her leadership in trail-blazing the way for new models of care in our community hospitals, and her dedication towards nurturing a strong culture of team cohesion, collaboration and patient-centric care among our staff. Her efforts have laid a strong foundation for SCH to continue making a positive impact in the well-being of patients and their communities, especially as we move towards fostering a Healthier SG,” said Professor Ivy Ng, Group CEO, SingHealth.

Dr Gan Wee Hoe, currently SCH’s Deputy CEO, has built on the efforts of the pioneering SCH team with his focus on enhancing SCH’s clinical and care processes, and strengthening staff engagement and appreciation. For example, as a keen advocate for staff engagement, he rolled out a slew of initiatives to foster mutual understanding and deepen collaboration across disciplines, including having SCH management and leaders job-shadow and work alongside staff in various areas of clinical care and operations, as well as introducing new awards for staff to celebrate team excellence. Dr Gan is also championing the re-development of Bright Vision Community Hospital, which will incorporate future-proofing clinical care concepts and environmental sustainability.

Dr Gan started his SingHealth leadership career at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), leading its Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and is concurrently SGH’s Chief Medical Informatics Officer. At SingHealth, he is the Lead of the SingHealth COVID-19 Vaccination Operations Group and Co-lead of the Strategic Workgroup on Innovation and Digitalisation. With his wide-ranging healthcare and leadership experience, Dr Gan is well-positioned to lead SCH in its next lap of delivering person-centred, quality and affordable care.

About Singapore Health Services (SingHealth)
SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare cluster, is committed to providing affordable, accessible and quality healthcare to patients. With a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals offering over 40 clinical specialties, it delivers comprehensive, multi-disciplinary and integrated care. Beyond hospital walls, SingHealth partners community care providers to enable the population to keep well, get well and live well. As part of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, SingHealth also focuses on advancing education and research to continuously improve care outcomes for patients. For more information, please visit: www.singhealth.com.sg

Members of the SingHealth group
Hospitals (Tertiary Specialty Care):
Singapore General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital

National Specialty Centres (Tertiary Specialty Care):
National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore, National Neuroscience Institute, and Singapore National Eye Centre

SingHealth Polyclinics (Primary Care):
Bedok, Bukit Merah, Marine Parade, Outram, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Sengkang, Tampines, Eunos, Tampines North (expected completion: 2023) and Kaki Bukit (expected completion: 2025)

SingHealth Community Hospitals (Intermediate and Long-term Care):
Bright Vision Community Hospital, Sengkang Community Hospital, and Outram Community Hospital

About SingHealth Community Hospitals (SCH)
SingHealth Community Hospitals (SCH) comprises Bright Vision Community Hospital, Outram Community Hospital and Sengkang Community Hospital, where the focus goes beyond healthcare to health as patients are provided with a homely environment to recuperate and take part in well-paced personalised care. As part of the SingHealth Regional Health System, SCH believes in working closely with community partners to allow patients to receive holistic and continued care during admission and after discharge.