Healthcare, like insurance, is something that people tend not to think about until they need it. The area’s health facilities are rarely at the forefront of our minds when scoping out a place in which to live. But they should be, because if and when the time comes to needing them, you need the peace of mind of not only knowing you have access to modern, efficient and expert care, but also that that care is easily accessible.
Sengkang General & Community Hospitals
Serangoon’s healthcare provisions are set to become some of the best on the island when the new integrated hospital development opens its doors in 2018. Announced in 2011, the 228,000 square metre site managed by Sengkang Health, will consist of three brand new hospitals and clinics, namely the general hospital, the community hospital, and a specialist clinic.
The two hospitals will provide 1,000 and 400 beds respectively, as well as a comprehensive and varied range of other medical services and facilities. As is the case with Novena’s Health City, two key components of the vision for the project are community led care, and clever integration of a comprehensive network of tertiary hospitals and other national speciality centres and polyclinics. This results in seamless 360 degree holistic care for residents, including integration back into their homes and daily lives.
Sengkang General
The new hospitals, as well as giving a huge boost in bed numbers, will also provide major and day surgery operating theatres, endoscopy suites, catheterisation labs, angioplasty/intervention radiology suites as well as specialist consultation rooms. There will be comprehensive training facilities on the site, such as a lecture theatre, a nurses training room, a skills lab and a patient care-giver training centre.
Easy access is afforded via dedicated ambulance entranceways, and separate vehicle drop-off and pick-up points for each of the general hospital, community hospital and specialist clinics. The site is also conveniently located a very short walk from Sengkang MRT Station, and will be connected to Cheng Lim LRT Station via a pedestrian bridge.
Institute of Mental Health (IMH)
The IMH – or Woodbridge as it is still affectionately referred to by many of the locals and staff due to its former incarnation as Woodbridge Hospital compound – is based at the Buangkok Green Medical Park. It is the nation’s only tertiary psychiatric hospital, and boasts 2,010 beds spread over its 50 wards, as well as seven separate outpatient clinics on its modern 25-hectare campus.
Institute Mental Health
The institute is many things to many people, offering counselling, psychiatric and full rehabilitative services to children all the way up to the elderly. The facility also houses dedicated departments for general psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, child & adolescent psychiatry, community psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, early psychosis intervention and addiction medicine.
Another important function of the institute is its championing of many mental health campaigns in the local community, and it is forefront in enabling staff at agencies such as family service centres to provide help and support to those suffering with mental health issues.
