SIT launches 4-year health-related degree programmes

By Vimita Mohandas, Channel NewsAsia, 29 Nov 2014

From 2016, the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) will be launching four-year degree programmes in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Diagnostic Radiography, and Radiation Therapy. The degree programmes will lead to a Bachelor of Science with Honours.

This was announced by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong on Saturday morning (Nov 29) at a ceremony to mark an important milestone in the infrastructure development of Sengkang General and Community Hospitals. SIT will start with an initial intake of 235 students across the four programmes, before ramping up progressively.

Mr Gan said that with Singapore's ageing population and rising rates of chronic conditions, training allied health professionals is important so that they have the skills and knowledge to offer patients better rehabilitative and preventive care.

"To meet evolving healthcare needs, building more hospitals and adding more beds is not a sustainable long-term approach,” said Mr Gan. “We can no longer rely on a hospital-centric system as patients' needs become more complex, which also means they require longer-term care outside the hospital setting."

SIT launches 4-year health-related degree programmes
From 2016, the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) will be launching four-year degree programmes in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Diagnostic Radiography, and Radiation Therapy. The degree programmes will lead to a Bachelor of Science with Honours.This was announced by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong on Saturday morning (Nov 29) at a ceremony to mark an important milestone in the infrastructure development of Sengkang General and Community Hospitals. SIT will start with an initial intake of 235 students across the four programmes, before ramping up progressively.Channelnewsasia Article / MediaCorp Video:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/sit-launches-4-year/1500564.html
Posted by People's Action Party on Sunday, November 30, 2014

Mr Gan added: "Through the regional health systems, patients will be better enabled to manage their own health and chronic condition so that they will remain well and avoid going to the hospital."

With the launch of the new degree programmes, the existing allied health diploma programmes at the Nanyang Polytechnic will admit its last batch of GCE A-Level students in April 2015. Since 1995, over 2,200 allied health professionals have graduated from NYP.

Meanwhile, the Sengkang General and Community Hospitals are on track to proceed with the next stage of infrastructure development. Both hospitals will add another 1,400 hospital beds to Singapore's healthcare system.

Nationally, from now until end-2020, the Health Ministry will add over 11,000 more acute hospital, community hospital and nursing home beds.

New training focus: Care outside of hospitals
Degree courses will be offered to emphasise preventive health, reduce stress on hospitals
By Salma Khalik,senior Health Correspondent, The Sunday Times, 30 Nov 2014

In a move to raise preventive care standards and keep more people out of hospitals, new degree courses in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, diagnostic radiography and radiation therapy will be offered from 2016.

Explaining the need for this, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said physiotherapists and occupational therapists will increasingly be needed to provide rehabilitation and preventive care outside of hospitals, both in the community and in patients' homes.

Even hospital-based therapists will need to work outside, he said, especially to help the frail and less mobile who face difficulties in travelling to hospitals.

Diagnostic radiographers and radiation therapists are also required to boost early diagnosis of ailments such as cancer so patients can get early treatment and suffer less.

The public sector has about 2,100 such therapists.

Speaking at a ceremony yesterday to mark the start of above-ground building of two Sengkang hospitals, which will provide 1,400 beds when they open in 2018, Mr Gan said: "We need to invest in a lot more of preventive health to minimise the stress on hospital services."

While promising to add 11,000 more beds to the current 23,000 by 2020, he added: "Building more hospitals and adding more beds is not a sustainable long-term approach.

"We can no longer rely on a hospital-centric system as patients' needs become more complex, which also means they require longer-term care outside the hospital setting."

This is why the Health Ministry (MOH) has been developing regional health systems in which a general hospital works closely with its cluster of community hospitals, nursing homes, home- and day-care providers and private clinics in the vicinity.

"Patients will be better enabled to manage their own health and chronic conditions so that they will remain well and avoid going to hospital," said the minister.

The four new degree programmes will be taught at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). The school will take in 235 students in 2016, with half the places for occupational therapists and 40 per cent for physiotherapists.

The courses will give young people here "a more diverse range of careers to fulfil their aspirations", said Mr Gan.

Currently, such training is provided only at Nanyang Polytechnic, which has been teaching these subjects as diploma courses since 1992. It will take in its last batch of students next year.

Sengkang Health's core team, meanwhile, is already working with agencies in the vicinity to see how it can promote health and prevent the need for hospitalisation. It held a focus group discussion yesterday to generate ideas on how to promote healthy living.

Sengkang Health's acting head, Professor Christopher Cheng, also promised that the medical teams that will run the new hospitals will include "renowned" doctors and highly experienced nurses and allied health-care professionals, such as radiation therapists.

They will come from other SingHealth hospitals such as Singapore General.

Taking a jibe at Jurong's upcoming Ng Teng Fong Hospital, which was supposed to open this year but was delayed by six months, Prof Cheng also assured that his hospitals will be "on time and on budget".