Research on Health Care Service Enhancement — Analysis of Changi General Hospital， Singapore

【Abstract】On 10th January 2012， I was engaged with a tour visit in Changi General Hospital （CGH）. Aided by Mr Rams accompany and introduction， CEO of Changi General Hospital （CGH）， overall knowledge for current public hospital system and operation mode in Singapore （SGP） has been captured， with which providing the introductory clues for further research on current health care service provision and the future challenges it may concern. As a whole， grounded on the acknowledgment of service provision and delivery in CGH， the tour visit remained me a set of directions to research for enhancement of overall health care service both in SGP and HK. That refers to current challenges CGH and the whole sphere on health care service are faced up with； the question on whether could CGH meet the incremental service needs in light of current provision and schemes for improvement， if it could， whats the sound lesson HK could learn from for better service provision and delivery； appropriate methods to deal with these challenges in near future and accommodation for better performance.

【Key words】public hospital； health care service； Changi General Hospital； Singapore； HK

Review on in Changi General Hospital （CGH）

CGH was officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 28 March， 1998， which mainly provided with caring for the community needs in the East. As to the concept and core value CGH proposed， it advocates to help the rest of community prevent chronic diseases from occurring by promoting healthy lifestyle rather than disease control and cure， which is consistent with the essential philosophy of health care service in SGP—preventive service is more crucial than cure， that means what CGH is perusing is the mainstream direction of health care development in SGP. Strictly speaking， CGH is a typical district hospital run by private sector and subsidized by government， providing plentiful medical recourse with 790 beds， 320 professional staff and sound environment for patients leisure. In addition， the large ranges of service category assist CGHs efficient service delivery， which has been generally divided into medical services and clinical support services with specific sub-branches. For improving the efficiency of service delivery and reducing waiting time， CGH divide patients service into 3 class in light of personal income， which directly classify the level of service that patients need to receive at first stage and contributes to the effectiveness of whole treatment process. In respect to how to judge the personal income impartially， SGP government contributes a lot by providing everyone a card with veritable information of personal income for CGHs service delivery checking.

On 18 November 2011， CGH officially became a member of the Eastern Health （EH）Alliance， which is the regional health system for the eastern Singaporeans， aiming to meet current challenges by progressively delivering and help patients manage their health well.It pledges to provide with integrated range of services compared with traditional service that have covered for achieving the goal， namely， patients education， early detection， disease prevention for right quality care provision at the right time. In addition， financial support for the development of EH Alliance is Changi fund， which targets to support the new services and service development， that guaranteed EH Alliance operation on one hand， and on the other hand， it could assist the new service delivery effectively， also could put much fresh blood to the overall development of CGH.

Challenges that CGH faces and accommodations

Similar to the current situation of HK health care service system， on no account could CGH and relevant departments in SGP neglect the sever challenges the whole system are faced up with， which is a macro level of challenges， including incremental aging population； more elder people will live alone dues to nuclear families and smaller families； the current service supplies are far away from the increasing demands； its hard to reach citizens expectation on future service provision. All these challenges push CGH to make diversified strategies and develop more schemes for meeting the demands in the future. And in practice， CGH has made great pains and efforts for better performance. At first， CGH join in EH Alliance for providing the elder an overall and progressive service delivery to release the burden； Besides， CGH put great efforts on talent development and staff training for better quality care delivery. In this sense， better resources management does good to the efficiency of service management dues to that it could not only make full use of medical services and human resources， but could reduce the waste of medical resources. In other words， better way to use resources is a wise investment under the situation of lacking of supplies. In addition， CGH emphasizes on providing seniors comprehensive range of residential， home， community-based health care service for more choice， which has made great effort on satisfying the diversified kinds of service demands.

On the micro level of challenges， thats the specific ones CGH need to deal with， which consists of funding problem that every hospital cannot escape； manpower limitation as to the different language speaker， and thats the most serious problem recently； the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. To solve these problems， CGH has implemented a series of measurements. Firstly， increasing investment on infrastructures for residential and community service delivery； Additionally， CGH has recruited more medical doctors and nursing staff who can speak Chinese， and trained the previous staff to solve communication gap between patients and doctors. Recently， most staff in CGH are Indian， Malaise who do not good at Chinese， whereas most of elder patients speak Chinese rather than English， and the fresh blood are exactly what CGH needs； At last， specific classification of patients as introduced before does good to the efficient service delivery， which is a wise scheme should keep running for maintaining delivery efficiency.

Hence， in light of the analysis above， its clear that CGH has made lots of efforts to meet the current challenges and probable challenges in the future from investments on service delivery infrastructures； implementing patients classification for service receiving； focusing on staff training； new experts recruitment； to increasing service category. The operations prove to be successful， pledge CGH an outstanding public hospital in SGP， but still， enhancement is dispensable for handling the future challenges， and recommendations are， at first， keep the previous successful schemes running； then， evaluate their operations regularly and make amendment as to current changes； at last， put more emphasize on disease prevention education， implement overall early education and health lifestyle advocate. Recently， health care reform in HK is on proposal， which advocates “money follows patient”， its a good start to health care service enhancement， as SGP has performed well for years， there are so many similar challenges the system are faced up with in both 2 areas. Most of service funding， provision， delivery mode in SGP deserves lesson learning for HK health care reform.

References：

[1]Changi General Hospital Home page，available at：.

[2]Eastern Health Alliance，Singapore，available at .

[3]Food and Health Bureau.（2008，March）.Your Health Your Life：Brochure on Healthcare Refrom - Text Version.Retrieved December 31，2009，available at：.

[4]Griffiths，S.（2009，October 29）.Maintaining healthy HK healthcare.China Daily Hong Kong Edition，p.H01.Available at：.

[5]Ministry of Health：Singapore Healthcare Services（22 Sep 2011），available at：.

作者簡介：田汶靈（1989-）， 女， 四川南充人， 南充職業(yè)技術學院外語系教師， 碩士研究生。