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| Toa Payoh Hospital - previously known as Thomson Road Hospital |
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Changi Hospital - previously known as Royal Air Force (RAF) Hospital
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CGH has a rich heritage and culture derived from its predecessor, Toa Payoh Hospital. Hence, the history of CGH is therefore also the story of Toa Payoh Hospital. Toa Payoh Hospital began in 1959 as Thomson Road Hospital. The hospital opened as a single ward situated on the top of a hill in a swampy and sparsely populated area. It was designated as a hospital for the chronic sick and for the people in surrounding communities.
As for the Old Changi Hospital, it used to be situated on the small Barrack Hill along Netheravon Road, was a fascinating place with a long history, going all the way back to the mid-thirties as a small British military hospital called Royal Air Force Hospital.
CGH was officially opened on 28 March 1998 by the then Deputy Prime Minister BG (NS) Lee Hsien Loong and is Singapore's first purpose-built general hospital, serving communities in the east and northeast regions. In line with the government's master plan on healthcare, CGH was designated to be the regional hospital for Singaporeans living east of the Kallang Basin.
Apart from dermatology service, psychological medicine, geriatric medicine, psycho-traumatology service, an Integrated Sleep Service, Breast Centre@changi, and an Endoscopy Centre, the Changi Sports Medicine Centre (CSMC) was introduced. CSMC is Singapore’s biggest multi-disciplinary sports medicine centre which has provided quality sports rehabilitation and performance enhancement programmes since 2003.
Also, in 2003, CGH set up a Peer Support Programme to provide crucial crisis counselling to staff who have been exposed to work-related critical incidents or crises. CGH was the first hospital to start this programme.
Since 2004, the hospital have also been certified BS OHSAS 18001, which is the internationally recognised assessment specification for occupational health and safety. This framework ensures and promotes a safe and healthy working environment for the hospital staff through the identification and control of health and safety risks.
On 11 June 2005,CGH received the Joint Commission International (JCI) Accreditation when their quality of clinical care was benchmarked against international standards. The hospital thus became the second hospital in Singapore to receive the accreditation.
On 3 August 2007, CGH also officially opened its International Medicine Centre which helps in providing medical care and services to foreign patients.
Other than that, the Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) was introduced in 2007, and CGH A&E became the first emergency department in the world to use it. MCA is a wireless and highly portable technology that enables doctors and nurses to better care for their patients and more effectively manage the hectic workflow in the fast-paced A&E.
In January 2008, the hospital became the first hospital to introduce a revolutionary e-financial counselling system to generate estimated bill sizes, and also to help patients make informed decisions about their ward class.
As part of CGH's move to digitize medical records, their Radiology department went filmless on 1 September 2008 with the implementation of the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) . PACS is a system capable of capturing, communicating, displaying and storing images which benefited the patients with regards to cost and time-savings.
In October 2008, all the wards and A&E in CGH were equipped with 156 Bedside Medical Workstations (BMWs) for doctors to access electronic patients records and X-ray images, check test results and order more tests.
Besides all the technological and accreditations that CGH achieved in the aim to improve their quality acute care services, they are also concerned about the health of their patients after they are discharged from the hospital and about the health of the community. As such, as part of integrated health care, CGH launched a number of community healthcare programmes, which includes CHAMPS (Community Health Ambassador Programme for Seniors) in 2005 and HOPES (Community Health Screening Programme) in 2009.
In 2002, CGH set up the Patient Welfare Charity—HomeCare Assist to help needy ill or bedridden patients after discharge from the hospital.
In addition, CGH implemented several mental health programmes with the aim of boosting mental health awareness and support of the community. This includes the Community Psycho-geriatric Programme (CPGP) and the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Singapore programme. The CPGP was introduced in 2007 to alleviate mental health problems in the elderly, while the MHFA was launched in 2008 to raise mental health awareness and literacy in Singapore.
In April 2005, CGH achieved another major milestone in integrated care when St Andrew's Community Hospital (SACH) moved next door and are connected to them by a sheltered link bridge. This arrangement thus helps to facilitate better step-down care for patients. With this, CGH became the first acute-care hospital to be paired with a community hospital.
Last but not least, in 2008, CGH also set up the ACTION (Aged Care Transition) Team with the aim to help patients and their family with discharge planning and to ease the transition from hospital to home. This helps to improve the quality of life for patients after discharge and to reduce their re-admission to the hospital and admission to nursing homes.
In summary, since their official opening in 1998, CGH has indeed come a long way in their goal to provide their best quality care and services for patients!
