Speech by Minister of State, Mr Chee Hong Tat at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2016, 8 October 2016

Dr Eugene Soh, Chief Executive Officer, Tan Tock Seng Hospital;

Dr Jamie Mervyn Lim, Chief Operating Officer, Tan Tock Seng Hospital

A/Prof Chin Jing Jih, Divisional Chairman, Integrative & Community Care, Tan Tock Seng Hospital;

Distinguished guests;

Ladies and gentlemen

1.            I am happy to join you today at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH)’s public forum, “Journeying with you 一路上有你” to commemorate World Hospice and Palliative Day. 

2.            Over the past few years, in preparation for a rapidly ageing population, we have invested in increasing the capacity and enhancing the affordability of health and aged care services. MOH, together with our healthcare institutions, are also transforming our healthcare and aged care services to ensure longer-term sustainability.

3.            One important conversation we need to have is about appropriate palliative care.  OrasAssisi Hospice shared with me when I visited them earlier this year, to enable patients to “leave well” besides helping them to “live well”. It’s both about living well and leaving well.

ADVANCE CARE PLANNING

4.            This is where Advance Care Planning, or ACP, comes in. ACP is a series of on-going conversations for healthcare professionals to engage the patient, family members and caregivers in early discussions about end-of-life preferences. The aim is to help individuals decide the type of care they prefer, if they should one day become very ill and lose their ability to make those decisions at that time. We know that these decisions are difficult and are better made when one is healthy and well, and not after the person has become very ill.  

5.            Some people may prefer to avoid talking about issues relating to death and dying.  We respect individual choices, this is really an individual’s choice.At the same time, we know that there are also Singaporeans who want to discuss such matters and who want to find out more, or how they can go about doing it, and to prepare a care plan for themselves in advance. This is where the ACP can come in to help them. We want to do this to empower ourselves to proactively choose and decide what is most important to us in the final days of our life, and make our wishes known early to our doctors and our loved ones. This also helps to reduce the stress and anxiety for our family members and caregivers if they should need to make decisions on our behalf.

6.            ACP and palliative care are integral parts of providing holistic patient-centric care. Sister Tan Siew Peng, a Senior Nurse Manager at Tan Tock Seng Hospital explained it well, she said “my journey in ACP reminds me not to just nurse the patient but to nurse the person as a whole.” This is about respecting the patient’s wishes and preferences, and treating the person as a whole.

7.            Since 2011, MOH has devoted more than $18 million to build ACP-related capabilities within our public healthcare institutions. These efforts have benefitted more than 5,000 Singaporeans since the initiative started in 2011. 

8.            The Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) is also working with voluntary welfare organizations in the community, such as Fei Yue Community Services and GoodLife! to promote public awareness about ACP. Together, they have reached out to almost 3,000 people so far.  We will continue with these efforts. 

9.            Over the past few months, I have visited three of the palliative care providers – Assisi Hospice, Dover Park Hospice and HCA Hospice Care.  They are doing good work and helping many patients.  MOH has increased our funding support for palliative care services in recent years, and we are supporting providers to increase their capacity, including the new facility which Assisi Hospice is currently building – it’s called Project Next Door.  This new facility will be ready by the end of this year.  To prepare for an ageing population and increased demand for palliative care services in Singapore, I have also asked my colleagues in MOH to work with our providers, our healthcare professionals, to review our policies and funding arrangements to further support the palliative care sector in Singapore.  This is an important area which we must continue to develop and to work closely with our partners and stakeholders.  

10.         Today, TTSH is launching its book, entitled “Conversations that Matter”. It contains stories from healthcare professionals and patients on ACP, and how ACP has improved the quality of life of our patients, and enabled them to live their final days in comfort and with dignity.

11.         I thank TTSH for putting together these touching stories and hope that through this book we can encourage more Singaporeans to be aware of ACP and to start the ACP journey with your doctors and your loved ones.

12.         Thank you very much, and I wish everyone a pleasant day ahead.