Alexandra Hospital
Alexandra Hospital: Acute and community treatment in Singapore.
The hospital’s colonial-style buildings were built on 110,000 square meters (1,200,000 square feet) of land in the late 1930s. It was known as the British Military Hospital during British authority, and it was the location of a massacre by the Japanese when they took over Singapore in World War II in February 1942. Following Singapore’s independence, the hospital was restored to British control until being passed over to the Singapore government on September 11, 1971. Since then, it has gone through four administration changes, the most recent of which was on June 1, 2018, when it was handed over to a group of long-term stewards under the National University Health System.
History
The British Military Hospital, first opened in 1938, operated as the primary military hospital for the British Far East Command. During the Japanese invasion of Singapore in February 1942, injured British servicemen and medical personnel were massacred by Japanese forces. Alexandra Hospital was one of Singapore’s most modern hospitals after WWII and remained so until the 1970s.
Alexandra Hospital was a cutting-edge medical facility in its peak, being the first hospital in Southeast Asia to successfully conduct limb re-attachment to a patient in 1975. Alexandra Hospital also employed a number of well-known medical professionals, including:
Sir Roy Calne, a world-renowned transplant surgeon Major A.P. Dignan, afterwards Major General, Head of Army Surgery Sir David Weatherall, Regius professor of medicine and honorary director of the University of Oxford’s Institute of Molecular Medicine Post-independence
On September 11, 1971, the hospital was turned over to the Singapore government and renamed Alexandra Road General Hospital, after the progressive downsizing and evacuation of the British military presence in Singapore. The hospital became a member of the National Healthcare Group on October 1, 2000, and underwent a substantial renovation.
Plans were announced in 2001 to relocate to a new hospital in Jurong by 2006. The plans were cancelled in 2004 in favor of a shift to a new 500-bed hospital in Yishun, to be known as Northern General Hospital, by March 28, 2009. (Not to be confused with another new hospital planned for the neighboring Woodlands, which was announced in March 2006 on the basis that Northern General will not be able to service enough people in the north.)
While addressing the HIMSS AsiaPac 2007 conference on May 16, 2007, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed that the new general hospital in Yishun will be named Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
[8] Mr Khoo Teck Puat’s family contributed S$125 million to the hospital’s development and finance. The new hospital intended to be distinct from others in that it promised to prioritize patients and reduce bureaucracy and paperwork. Alexandra Hospital was supposed to shut once KTPH opened, however after August 2010, the hospital was retained operating and relocated to Jurong Health.
On September 8, 2012, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong declared that the hospital will stay operational at least until 2018, but that following the construction of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in 2014-2015, the team tasked with running the Sengkang General and Community Hospitals would take over the facilities. According to the Health Minister, a decision on the hospital’s future will be taken in 2018. Sengkang Health had previously taken over from JurongHealth, which had shut down Alexandra Hospital to preparation for the inauguration of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.
Alexandra Hospital was scheduled to shut on January 26, 2015, in preparation for the inauguration of the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in July 2015. Specialist Outpatient Clinics Services remained at AH until it was transferred to NTFGH. Sengkang Health planned to take over Alexandra Hospital and reopen it in stages by the third quarter of 2015. JurongHealth shut down Alexandra Hospital (AH) at 5.30 p.m. on June 29, 2015, in order to prepare for the inauguration of NTFGH the following day. The hospital’s Specialist Outpatient Clinics and Emergency Department were to be included. The hospital was reopened in stages by Sengkang Health, with the Specialist Outpatient Clinics, operating theaters, and other medical facilities being operational in 2016.
On June 1, 2018, the National University Health System took over the hospital when Sengkang Health moved away.
Center for Urgent Care
The Urgent Care Centre is a 24-hour clinic that treats walk-in patients with acute and urgent medical illnesses as well as those who are transported to Alexandra Hospital by private ambulance. Blood and radiological testing, as well as further therapy, are delivered to patients who need more than basic care by a single holistic care team.
Gardens
The butterfly path in the gardens surrounding the hospital is home to around 500 plant species and 100 butterfly species. The hospital grounds have been utilized as a research site by members of nature organizations. The gardens were refurbished in 2000 under the guidance of Ms. Rosalind Tan, a senior executive in the hospital’s operations department who received the first EcoFriend Award from the National Environment Agency (NEA) in June 2007 for her contributions to environmental sustainability.
Hundreds of hospitalized troops and employees were slaughtered by Japanese forces in 1942, as commemorated by a memorial in the grounds.
