SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH, AT THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER AND DANCE

Professor Yeoh Khay Guan, Chief Executive, National University Health System

Professor Aymeric Lim, Chief Executive Officer, National University Hospital

Emeritus Professors, past and present CEOs, DMSes and DGHes

Ms Thanaletchimi, President, NTUC

Professor Lim Pin

All of you who work in NUH

               It gives me great pleasure to join you to celebrate the National University Hospital’s (NUH) 40^th anniversary. Congratulations on four decades of excellence.

2.               Your journey started on 24 June 1985, when NUH opened its doors as a restructured hospital, serving the western region of Singapore. In preparing for this speech, I spoke to a few experienced NUH clinicians to find out more about your genesis. The legacy of NUH dates back to 1905, where university clinical departments were functioning in other hospitals. For example, orthopaedic and paediatrics were in the Singapore General Hospital, and obstetrics and gynaecology were in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. When NUH was established at Kent Ridge in 1985, these units progressively moved over and various professors helped establish more departments.

3.               The late Emeritus Professor Lenny Tan from NUS set up the imaging department. The late Professor Arthur Lim set up the eye department and also the Singapore Eye Research Institute. The list goes on.

NUH over the Years

4.               What makes NUH unique and special from day one is its close affiliation with the National University of Singapore (NUS). NUH joined the ranks of renowned university hospitals all over the world – University College London Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital which is part of Harvard, University California Los Angeles Health, University of Tokyo Hospital, etc.

5.               A university hospital is in a special position to synergise teaching, research and clinical practice. Teaching benefits hospital operations by providing a continuous pipeline of fresh and good talent. At the same time, the hospital injects realism and practicality into the medical school’s curriculum.

6.               Research informs clinical practice of the latest findings and insights, while practice helps guide and prioritise research into areas with the greatest impact. That is why when I was Minister for Education quite long ago, and I think Chorh Chuan would know this, I always quipped, “If only all faculties in NUS and universities do research like the medical faculty.”

7.               Over the next 40 years, NUH became a key pillar of Singapore’s public health, contributing to and shaping the ecosystem through innovation and excellence.

8.               Let me go through the decades briefly. In its first decade, Professor Foong Weng Cheong, then-Head of Surgery, introduced day surgery to Singapore – a novel concept in the 1980s. NUH was also the first public hospital in Singapore to establish off-site dialysis centres to enhance accessibility for kidney patients.

9.               NUH integrated inpatient, outpatient and emergency IT modules into a unified System. It was the first hospital in the Asia Pacific to do so at that time.

10.           In its second decade, NUH became the world’s first hospital to successfully complete a liver transplant using a living donor who had von Willebrand’s disease. The surgery demonstrated that through proper preparation of the donor, it is possible for patients with a blood-clotting disorder to donate their liver and have a smooth recovery.

11.           In 2002, neurosurgeons at NUH developed a biodegradable plastic mesh for cranial surgery. This award-winning advancement paved the way for its use in neurosurgical, orthopaedic and maxillofacial surgeries.

12.           In its third decade, NUH implemented the region's first Closed-Loop Medication Management System, which digitalised the medication administration process. NUH also performed Singapore’s first simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant under a national pilot programme.

13.           Fast forward to the current decade, NUH held a major battlefront in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic – saving infected patients, comforting their families, manning the foreign worker dormitories.

14.           As an ageing society has brought population health to the fore, NUH as part of the NUHS cluster has helped drive the Health District @ Queenstown project. It draws in expertise from various parties into a housing precinct in Queenstown, strengthening the health of the residents there. I look forward to knowing the results of that pilot project.

15.           AI-driven tools have begun to be integrated into NUH's daily operations. Of all hospitals, I think NUH is putting a real serious effort in integrating AI into the hospital. You have Discovery AI which consolidates data for research, and Endeavour AI which receives live data and hosts AI models. The hospital, I believe, is at the cusp of realising immense possibilities to transform healthcare. Last year, NUH was recognised as one of the World's Best Smart Hospitals.

The Next Decade

16.           The question is: What will your next forty years be like? I would not venture into predicting so far into the future, but I have an idea of how things might unfold in the next ten years.

17.           I think what will not change is your ethos of excellence, innovation and public service. However, the operating environment will be different – the population will be older, the conditions of patients will be more complex, medical technology will take several further leaps forward, and resources will become tighter as national healthcare expenditure goes up.

18.           Given these factors, I believe NUH will likely undergo the following three major transformations.

19.           First, a technological transformation. NUH will be at the forefront in harnessing technology to transform healthcare. What is being piloted today will become standard practice across the hospital, and maybe even across the whole healthcare system.

20.           Before long, every care team will have an AI companion to help you diagnose patients and prescribe care pathways. But the doctor will still approve the pathway to choose. Its predictive powers will help the care team anticipate what could go wrong with a patient and take action to prevent them. Scans will be read by AI software and known anomalies will be highlighted.

21.           Medical records will be autogenerated with AI tools listening in to conversations between patients, nurses and doctors. Sensors and algorithms will monitor the movements of patients and keep them safe. Robotic surgery may become cost-effective, with lower prices of equipment and consumables, discipline in application, and consolidation of case volume.

22.           Second, a population health transformation. There will be much stronger collaboration between the acute hospital, community hospital, family doctors, nursing homes, hospices and other community care providers. Patients will be sited where it is most conducive for their recovery and rehabilitation. Transitions will become a lot more seamless.

23.           NUH will plug into the network of Active Ageing Centres, and through your health posts, deliver clinical and preventive care in the community. There will likely be much stronger partnership even with fitness coaches, coffee shops and hawker centres, to encourage exercise and bring about better diet.

24.           In other words, I believe that in the next ten years, there will be a decisive shift of care away from hospitals to the community. Manpower will increasingly be deployed to multiple settings, especially those in communities, closer to residential homes. NUH, as a brand, as an identity, will no longer be synonymous with a hospital, but a health system, from acute to preventive, from curative to rehabilitative to palliative, for the communities in the West.

25.           Finally, you will go through a physical transformation. NUH buildings are mostly 40 to 50 years old. Only the Medical Centre, Centre for Oral Health and Khoo Teck Puat – National University Children’s Medical Institute are relatively new. Further, being an old campus, the layout is far from ideal, and facilities are also getting timeworn.

26.           We have therefore announced earlier that the Kent Ridge campus is undergoing a major redevelopment effort under a new Masterplan. The project has started this year and will take about a decade to complete.

27.           The process is quite complex, as you would appreciate, because the hospital will still be operating even while undergoing redevelopment. This means new wards will therefore have to be constructed, in order to facilitate a musical chair process of relocating existing wards and redeveloping the current sites.

28.           By 2033, we expect to replace half of your 1,200 existing beds and add about 100 new beds. By 2038, the remaining beds will also be replaced, and another 200 beds will be added to reach a total bed capacity of 1,500. The emergency departments, operating theatres, and specialist outpatient clinics will also be enhanced during this redevelopment.

29.           The re-designed campus will be much more user-friendly, with shorter travel distances between facilities, and services that are easier to locate. The campus will be greener, with more plants and trees and less carbon emission. This will be a major upgrade of the healthcare infrastructure in the western part of Singapore.

A Tribute to the People of NUH

30.           Let me conclude. As we celebrate this important milestone this evening, I want to pay tribute to and salute the people of NUH, who have contributed to the establishment and growth of the institution.

31.           Aymeric mentioned many pioneer clinicians, and I mentioned a few earlier. Other than them, NUH had good leaders. Over 40 years, it had nine CEOs – Khaw Boon Wan, Peter Yeo, Judy Lim, Pek Beng Choon, Lim Suet Wun, Chua Song Khim, Joe Sim, Eugene Liu and now Aymeric Lim. Of whom, four are still active in the healthcare sector, others have retired, one retired from politics and I think is still trying to retire fully!

32.           More importantly our healthcare sector, including NUH, always has good people, many of whom are seated in the audience today. This is the workforce that has shaped and built our healthcare system, including NUH. I thank you for building this unique and shining healthcare institution that all of us are proud of.

33.           Happy 40^th birthday to all of you! I wish you many more years of excellence. Thank you.