By Tan Tock Seng Hospital
On 18 March 2022, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) officially opened the TTSH Ang Mo Kio Specialist Centre (AMKSC) in the heart of the Ang Mo Kio neighbourhood. The care models within the centre are part of the hospital’s Central Health strategy to strengthen care beyond hospital walls and nurture healthier communities in Central Singapore.
[from left] TTSH Chairman Medical Board Adj Prof Chin Jing Jih, Senior Minister of State for Health Dr Koh Poh Koon, Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong, National Healthcare Group Chairman Mr Tan Tee How, and TTSH Chief Executive Officer Adj Prof Eugene Fidelis Soh officially open the TTSH Ang Mo Kio Specialist Centre
To bring in-demand specialist care out of the hospital into the community, TTSH has redesigned key services at three of its clinics to make them more accessible, sustainable and appropriate to be delivered consistently in the community: Trans-disciplinary Diabetes Care, Optometrist-led Eye Care, and Audiologist-led Community Hearing Evaluation.
Clinical Diabetes Educators are trained to carry out different aspects of diabetes care and patient education, saving patients three to five visits a year.
TTSH is also partnering general practitioners (GPs) and polyclinics in the co-management of residents’ health, starting with direct referrals from GPs to specialist diagnostics, therapy and procedures offered at AMKSC. The Integrated Musculoskeletal Therapy Services and Day Surgery Centre accept patients from GPs for allied health therapy and basic endoscopic procedures, and the respective teams will keep referring doctors updated on patients’ progress for better continuity of care.
TTSH also works closely with other health and social care partners across the neighbourhoods they serve together. The Agency for Integrated Care’s (AIC) outreach arm, the Silver Generation Office (SGO), is co-located in AMKSC with TTSH’s Community Health Teams. SGO reaches out to residents in the area and refers relevant cases to TTSH through its CHTs, and this co-location allows both teams to work seamlessly together to identify residents in need, plan community-based programmes, and coordinate health and social care plans with other partners in the community.
With the official opening of AMKSC and the launch of Healthier SG, partners across Central Singapore are bringing care closer to residents, ensuring that the population they serve is cared for closer to home, and kept healthy and happy within the community.
