CGH held the “Big Hearts Community Fair & Charity Bazaar” specially for the residents in the east to thank them for their enduring support on 23 September 2006.

The open-house also marked CGH’s 10th year anniversary and was one of the smorgasbord of activities planned for its year-long celebration.

With the community’s support, CGH has made big strides in healthcare in the last decade. It has Singapore’s second busiest A&E hospital, admissions have more than doubled while clinical services have expanded from 14 to 23 medical services.

Speaking at the event launch, Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, Singapore Press Holdings Chairman and Guest of Honour, lauded CGH for its contributions in healthcare. He says: “CGH programmes such as Friends of CGH, patient welfare charity HomeCare Assist, and the Community Health Ambassador Programme for Seniors (CHAMPS) are all programmes in the right direction.”

“CGH has also done significant research, from gastroenterology to urology and general surgery, pioneered medical treatment for sleep apnoea and meniscal transplant and developed an excellent sports medicine centre. The setting up of a Clinical Trials Research Unit at CGH to undertake phase one to phase four clinical trials will also promote Singapore’s vision to be a centre of biomedical research,” he adds.

Professor Fock Kwong Ming, Chairman, Medical Board, who oversaw CGH’s JCI accreditation in June 2005, says: “CGH will continuously improve clinical quality. We will maintain what is good, while focusing on areas that need improvement.”

Going forward, CGH will be introducing more initiatives that will help patients optimise their health dollars. One of them is a partnership programme where CGH doctors and GPs will jointly manage patients with chronic ailments such as diabetes and heart failure at CGH clinics. The aim is to prepare patients for follow-up consultation with a family physician. “It will also help patients build a long term relationship with their GPs,” says Mr T.K Udairam, CEO.

After the launch, Dr Tan and Mrs Tan participated in a treeplanting ceremony to commemorate the occasion. They were joined by Ms Jessica Tan, MP for East Coast GRC, Mr Teo Chong Tee, MP for Changi (1976 – 1996), Mr Ch’ng Jit Koon, MP for Tiong Bahru (1968 – 1991) and Bukit Merah (1991 – 1996), Mr Ng Kah Ting, MP for Punggol (1963 – 1991), Dr V. Sivagnanaratnam, Emeritus Consultant, CGH Department of Anaesthesia, Mr Udairam, Prof Fock and Dr Wong Chiang Yin, CGH COO.