MOH to set up geriatric research institute at new Yishun hospital

By Vimita Mohandas, Channel NewsAsia, 23 Aug 2013

The Geriatric Education and Research Institute (GERI) will be set up at the new Yishun Community Hospital (YCH) to better prepare Singapore for the challenges of an ageing population.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong announced this at the ground-breaking ceremony of YCH on Friday morning.

He said the institute will develop, co-ordinate and implement initiatives to strengthen education and research in geriatric care.

Located behind Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), YCH is the third community hospital to be built next to an acute-care hospital.

The others are Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Ren Ci Hospital, Changi General Hospital and St Andrew’s Community Hospital.

Once completed in 2015, YCH will offer inpatient services for rehabilitation, sub-acute dementia and palliative care.

With 428 beds, the hospital will also be a step up from previous community hospitals.

Liat Teng Lit, group chief executive officer at Alexandra Health, said: "One-third of the beds in this hospital are sub-acute. The patients that we are going to look after are going to be more sick than some of the patients that you see in the current generation of community hospitals. We are linked very seamlessly to the facilities in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. So if in an emergency, we need to transfer the patient back to KTPH, it's just the skylink and you are back there.”

YCH will complement KTPH by providing seamless care to KTPH's patients and be a base for initiatives such as transitional home care service, telemedicine with the community and nursing homes.

Each rehabilitation ward has a multi-purpose room designed to simulate a home-like environment to encourage patients to dine and socialise together.

YCH will also collaborate with community partners including nursing homes such as Villa Francis Home, Sunlove Home, and Sree Narayana Mission to provide seamless holistic care for patients.

YCH will also be a base for Alexandra Health's Ageing-In-Place programme to support intermediate- and long-term care in the community.

Mr Gan said: "GERI will also focus on research to investigate issues such as age-related physiological and clinical changes and translate the findings to inform clinical care, treatment modalities, disease prevention, risk factors management and health promotion. The research findings will help to inform our health policy and clinical services strategies to improve care provision for our elderly population."

The institute will collaborate with other parties including research agencies, geriatric departments, other community hospitals and primary care providers to conduct research in these areas.