Caring

CGH’s Heritage Tour

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, about 120 CGH staff and family took a trip down memory lane to Toa Payoh Hospital (TPH) and Changi Hospital (CH) on 27 May 2006.

CGH was formed as a merger between Toa Payoh Hospital and Changi Hospital in 1996 and a lot of ex-TPH and ex-CH staff joined the heritage tour to revisit their old workplaces after 10 years.

"The heritage tour was significant as it marked a decade of leaving the two old hospitals and moving forward
to a bigger hospital with modern facilities at Changi General Hospital" said Assistant Director Nursing, Ms Janet
Choo, Organising Chairman for
CGH Heritage Tour."

Dr Low Cheng Ooi, CGH’s Chief of Orthopaedics, was the tour guide at old Toa Payoh hospital for the Heritage Tour. Dr Low, who joined Toa Payoh Hospital as a Senior Registrar in 1989, was one of the key staff who helped to plan the hospital’s move from Toa Payoh to Simei.

"We had to keep TPH open while we got ready CGH. Most of the departments actually split the team up so that a group of us went over to Simei getting everything
ready, making sure things are safe and this
side starts to wind down, " said Dr Low about
the move from TPH to CGH."

Toa Payoh Hospital was located in a big swamp surrounded by dense vegetation while old Changi Hospital was located on a hill near Changi Village.

Facilities at the old hospitals may be spartan but the ex staff had fond memories of the camaraderie with the colleagues.

“We were a small hospital so everyone knows everyone. When we are on night shift, our colleagues will bring food to work and theywill always include our share,” said Senior Nurse Manager Liu Li Chu, Cardiac Catheterisation Lab who worked at Changi Hospital from 1980 to 1994 and from 1995 till the hospital closed in 1997.”

Brief history of Toa Payoh Hospital		Brief history of Changi Hospital
Toa Payoh Hospital began humbly in 1959 as Thomson Road Hospital which was designated for the chronic sick. It formally opened with only 2 doctors, 7 nursing staff and 1 commissioned ward, situated on the top of a hill in a swampy and sparsely populated area. It was renamed Thomson Road General Hospital in 1968 as operating theatres and new clinical departments were opened. The hospital was renamed Toa Payoh Hospital to identify with the new town in which it was situated.		Changi Hospital has a long and rich history. The British decided to build a new naval base in Changi in 1923. In 1935, the Royal Air Force Hospital was commissioned. During the Japanese occupation, Changi Naval Base became a POW camp. The hospital could not cope with the heavy work load and within a fortnight of the British surrender, the hospital was moved to Roberts Barracks, where all the barrack blocks were rapidly converted into a gigantic sick bay. In 1962, Royal Air Force (RAF) Hospital was formed after it was expanded to cater for all the RAF stations in Singapore. From 1965 to 1974, the hospital went through a series of name changes under different administrations. It eventually became the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Hospital in Dec 1975. In July 1976, the SAF Hospital combined with the Changi Chalet Hospital located at Turnhouse Road 100 metres away to become Changi Hospital. The hospital was handed over to Ministry of Health. The hospital comprised an Upper Block at Halton Road and a Lower Block at Turnhouse Road. It had a total bed complement of 180 beds.