For more than 30 years, many of the most fragile patients benefited from the expertise and dedicated care of the late Associate Professor Joseph Manuel Gomez. The Senior Consultant Neonatologist and Head of NICU specialised in looking after babies with very low birth weight, with his tiniest patients weighing just 435g.

"I would consult him when I needed advice on critically ill babies. Even if I called him in the middle of the night, he always understood that I was trying to do my best for the baby. Never once, in all the years that I worked with him, do he ever show any impatience.

Till today, I still find myself thinking 'Gomez used to say...Gomez would probably have done...' "

- Assoc Prof Mary Daniel, Senior Consultant & Head of Child Development, KKH

“When I first came to work with Assoc Prof Gomez in KKH, there were very few neonatologists, so he used to do very frequent calls. When there was a critically ill baby, he hardly went home, except to bathe and change,” recalls Assoc Prof Mary Daniel, Senior Consultant and Head of Child Development, KKH, who worked with him for over 20 years. “I firmly believe there are many children alive today who literally owe their lives to him.”

Sadly, the healer, teacher and mentor passed away suddenly in May 2017. But the impact he made and the legacy he leaves behind on improving clinical quality and patient safety will continue to benefit patients for years to come.

Assoc Prof Gomez was instrumental in the upgrading of the present 40-bed NICU which created a technologically-advanced facility, capable of providing care for its vulnerable patients. He championed infection control measures and had a deep appreciation of the power of automation and computerisation in bolstering patient safety both in the NICU and beyond. When not treating patients, he led workgroups to enhance KKH’s electronic medical records, improve medication safety and shared his passion for the latter at the national level to benefit patients across Singapore.

 “His aspiration was to deliver the best care to every patient, benchmarked against international standards,” remembers Dr Chua Mei Chien, Senior Consultant and Head of Department, Neonatology, KKH. “He inspired and taught many of us the important principles of clinical quality and armed us with the skills to translate our desires to do our best, into practical actions.”

To honour Assoc Prof Gomez’s work and continue his legacy, the J.M.Gomez Faculty Development Fund in Patient Safety and Clinical Quality has been established under the SingHealth Duke-NUS Paediatrics Academic Clinical Programme. This expendable Fund will support research and education programmes as well as training opportunities in patient safety and clinical quality for a minimum of 10 years. Fundraising efforts for this Fund are ongoing; the target to be raised is $200,000.

If you would like to share your memories of Assoc Prof Gomez and/or pledge your support through this Fund, please contact the KKH Development Team at [email protected].