A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
This year’s Annual Report pays tribute to the tenacity and resilience of all our staff at Yishun Health. Amid the gruelling and ongoing challenges of the past year, our teams responded to the test of COVID-19 with courage, compassion and creativity.
Drawing strongly from our fundamentals of care, collaborative ‘can do’ spirit, and DNA of continuous improvement, the Yishun Health family has kept true to our mission of care and continued to keep our patients and community safe.
In these pages, you will read about the swift, decisive and wide-ranging work taken to bolster and drive our pandemic response, and the many teams that have gone beyond the call of duty to ensure Yishun Health continues to stand ready and steady in this ongoing crisis.
For one, we accelerated our digitalisation drive to leverage technology, enabling us to expand care and maintain critical functions in care delivery, medical education, and more. An even greater effort was made to improve our processes and innovate for better outcomes as well as raise the level of patient care and safety. Beyond the Yishun Health campus, we also continued to support the community in the North to maintain their health, monitor their conditions, self-manage with confidence, and access right-sited care and support within their homes and neighbourhoods.
And while keeping a keen eye on the evolving pandemic, we also kept nimble and vigilant in maintaining a delicate balance between restrictions and the resumption of hospital services. Assimilating to the new normal has meant thinking outside the traditional confines of care delivery and looking at new ways of connecting with, caring for, and empowering our community.
CONTINUING OUR COMMITMENT OF CARE IN THE NORTH
Take the Diabetes Centre at Admiralty Medical Centre (AdMC). It continues to be instrumental in driving self-management and equipping patients with the knowledge and skills to live well. Some of its educational programmes include the Diabetes Empowerment Programme and Skills for Life.
At Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), many teams have striven to improve existing initiatives to make care better for our patients. A prime example is our Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences team, whose members have thought of ways to make its services more affordable and accessible to our residents within the community.
Over at Yishun Community Hospital (YCH), teams relooked and refined multiple areas of care to implement projects. These included efforts to implement new technology for wound debridement, and a move towards Transitional Rehabilitation, which enables more community-based self-management that can be supported by video consultation, patient education, and collaborations with community partners.
Much good work has been done by the Population Health and Community Transformation (PHCT) team, too. Asset-based community development continues to drive many of their initiatives as they build connections among residents and partners, growing sustainable community-driven projects and bonds.
We have come so far. Though the road ahead is unknown, it is motivating to look upon these achievements and improvements to spur us onwards. If anything, this pandemic has shown that we have the capacity to create solutions and turn challenges into opportunities. One of my priorities is the well-being of our staff, so that we can continue to serve our mission and purpose as healthcare workers in the long run.
WORKING TOGETHER IN THE YEAR AHEAD
I am excited to work alongside the Yishun Health team to continue the good work achieved over the years. And I look forward to serve with the leadership of Yishun Health, both in the Board Committee and the Senior Management.
On this note, I would like to warmly welcome Ms Lock Yin Mei, our new Yishun Health Board Committee Chairman, appointed on 1 October 2020. She takes the place of Mr Robert Chew, who joined the then AHS Board in 2007, and was appointed Chair of Board IT Sub-Committee. When we amalgamated with NHG in 2017, he was appointed Chairman of Yishun Health Board Committee until 30 September 2020. A fond farewell also goes out to Prof James Best, who served from 2017 until 2021. Thank you, Robert and Prof Best, for your long years of support, wisdom and guidance.
The heartiest of thanks goes out especially to the outgoing CEO of Yishun Health, Mrs Chew Kwee Tiang, who has served a total of 35 years in the public healthcare sector. Mrs Chew was Chief Operating Officer at Alexandra Hospital before her appointment as CEO of KTPH in 2012. She took on the concurrent role of CEO of Yishun Health in 2017. She has been instrumental in building the campus’ service standards and cultivating a strong kaizen culture. We wish her all the very best in her new roles as Senior Advisor of Yishun Health’s Kaizen Office, and in NHG as Senior Director, Wellness, and Senior Advisor, NHG Board of Advisors.
Our Annual Report this year shows that, against one of the greatest tests of our time, Yishun Health has not just survived, but thrived — a finding in ourselves new-found resilience and resourcefulness that we have channelled productively and creatively to bring better health to our population.
