Mount Alvernia Hospital is the only not-for-profit general acute tertiary care private hospital in Singapore. With close to 380 beds, Alvernia is supported by more than 300 on-campus specialist doctors and nearly 1,400 accredited doctors. Dedicated Clinical Pastoral Care forms part of our holistic care for patients and their families regardless of backgrounds and beliefs.
As a not-for-profit hospital, Alvernia channels its surpluses towards improving hospital facilities, supporting Assisi Hospice, and giving back to the underserved community through our outreach programmes, all guided by its motto to Serve all with Love.
History
In 1949, Sisters from the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM) took over the tuberculosis wards at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which eventually became known as Mandalay Road Hospital. They also served “The Lepers Camp”, a community of lepers housed in Trafalgar Home in Woodbridge. Both centres were managed as self-contained units as isolation was the treatment at that time.
In 1952, the Sisters were given an opportunity to start a private hospital to bring nursing care and services to the population. It was to be a well-planned and professionally managed hospital for everyone; especially for the poor and the disadvantaged. The FMDM Sisters pooled their savings and salaries, and canvassed for donations all over Singapore. The Colonial government at that time promised a dollar-for-dollar matching grant based on the total collection.
The Sisters bought land on Thomson Hill in October 1956, which was cleared in 1957.[1] However, the construction of the hospital, which was meant to have begun in 1956, was delayed after the government announced that it would not subsidise the cost.[2]Minister of HealthA. J. Braga performed the ground breaking ceremony on 7 January 1959.[3] Construction of the building began later that year, as the government had promised the Sisters a grant of $425,000.[2]
After Singapore gained self-government and the 1959 Singaporean general election, the matching grant from the colonial government was cancelled. The Sisters had to adjust their plans to cater for a 60-bed hospital instead of 200 but would be fully equipped to provide medical, surgical and maternity care.
On 4 March 1961, Mount Alvernia Hospital was declared officially opened.[4] Staffing was done entirely by the Sisters who were professionally trained as nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, radiographers, laboratory technicians and other support services. The Sisters who ran the hospital received all their professional healthcare qualifications, religious training and work attachment at a hospital in the United Kingdom.[5]
At the time of opening, the hospital was equipped with two operating theatres, an anaesthetics room, a recovery room, two labour wards, a nursery and a milk kitchen. A physiotherapy department was also in place, as well as one outpatient department and a dispensary. X ray department was set up immediately. The nursing Sisters performed ward duties from 7am to 9pm and doubled up as housekeepers, chefs and meal servers when they are off ward duties.[5]
In 1963, the first extension to MAH was completed. This provided improved outpatient facilities, a new delivery suite, a third labour ward, a specialised nursery for premature infants and two more operating theatres. In the same year, the first Resident Medical Officer (RMO) joined the team and a second RMO was added two years later.
In 1964, one of the Sisters came back after her training in England and Ireland to set up a department of pathology, a blood bank, making MAH the first hospital to have its own blood bank and it was 90% self-sufficient. Patients' relatives were encouraged to donate. With the seaport bustling with activities at that time, the Sisters also regularly went out to the anchored ships to drive blood donation from visiting seamen.
The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew opened the new hospital wing
During the early years after independence, government focus on expanding medical services in primary healthcare was to improve hygiene. Inpatient care was not high on the list of government priorities at that time. MAH saw the need to further develop to increase inpatient capacity and support services.
In July 1965, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew officially opened a new 5-storey wing, which brought the total number of beds to 127.
In 1969, MAH added another extension to provide care to chronically ill patients. Within this building, another 22 beds were added.
Lee returned to the hospital again in 1971 to open another wing adding another 72 beds to the capacity. With this addition, the hospital now had 221 beds.[6][7]
The new wing included an Intensive Care Unit and a Paediatric Ward. It also housed a new outpatient department with consulting rooms and a minor theatre. A radiography department, pathology laboratory were expanded, a hydrotherapy pool was added to the physiotherapy department. For the convenience of the patients and visitors, the public areas boasted a new coffee house and a pharmacy.
In the 1980s, a decision was taken to accommodate some specialist clinics on campus. Work began in 1989 to build a new 7-storey medical centre. With doctors on-campus, increased in patient loads were expected. 1991 saw the construction of a new wing to accommodate medical and consulting suites. This wing would also include a suite of six operating theatres, a delivery suite of 10 rooms and 4-bedded first-stage room, a new physiotherapy and occupational therapy unit.
MAH further stepped up support for specialist practices by expanding clinical services from the late 1990s onwards. These include X ray, MRI, multi slide CT-scan and digital mammography. Other developments include capabilities for laparoscope of Minimal Access Surgery. A Lithotripter Centre was opened and a bone densitometer was added to the facilities of Diagnostic Imaging Department. Clinical support staff received training and skills upgrading with attachments at leading international institutions.
In addition to training its own staff, the hospital also ran courses for doctors. MAH scored a first as a private healthcare initiative by beaming the procedure live from the operating theatre to be viewed in a separate training area. Foreign doctors were included in the training. The capability for laparoscopic surgery allowed MAH to include many more procedures in its Day Surgery services.
In 1986, MAH started accepting respite patients. This extension became known as Assisi Home. Two years later, it expanded into the area of Hospice Care and in 1992, a decision was taken to establish hospice care as a dedicated mission of the Assisi Hospice, housed in a separate building from the hospital.
Medical Centre A was officially opened in 1996
In 1996, the new medical centre (now known as Medical Centre A) was finally opened and started admitting specialist doctors with full admission rights.
Health screening centre was added to offer comprehensive and personalized services. The other service was the Day Surgery where the patient could register, checkout and collect medication in one place.
In 2004, allied health services were stepped up with the setting up of the Sports Medicine and Sports Surgery Centre functions in tandem with the rehabilitation centre. The following year, MAH added 24-hour outpatient clinic services to fill the gap when extended hours in Singapore public sector polyclinics were discontinued
In October 2010, MAH opened the Alvernia Parentcraft Centre for ante-natal care, childbirth education and newborn baby care. Equipped with private consultation rooms and staffed by lactation consultants and parentcraft counsellors, the Centre fulfilled the needs of both parents with newborns and those preparing for childbirth.
The following year saw more investment in several IT initiatives such as electronic medical records, online medical test order by doctors, enhancement of pharmacy information system and customer relationship management system.
The new side extension facing Thomson Road was completed in 2012. It housed additional diagnostic imaging facilities, a bigger health screening centre, more operating theatres and patient beds. It is served by a covered pedestrian walkway to provide easy access to Thomson Road.
The hospital Chapel had been an integral part of the infrastructure since MAH started in 1961. The Chapel went through a renovation and reopened in 2013. The new medical centre D was finally completed and officially opened by Minister of Health, Gan Kim Yong in October 2014. This new 17,490sq m new facility not only provides additional medical suites, but also expanded car park space for the hospital. It houses over 60 specialist clinics and cover 28 specialties.[1]
Community Outreach
Since 2009, the hospital-wide Community Outreach programme has reached out to more than 15,000 people through mass health screenings and health talks conducted at the grassroots level through channels such as the People's Association, churches and other religious organisations. A new channel for partnership was established when MAH and the Singapore Heart Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 28 August 2012 to explore joint activities to promote heart health.
Since 2013, MAH were able to bring free health screening to other religious organizations. They are Lembaga Pentadbir Masjid Ar-Raudhah mosque located at Bukit Batok and Sree Ramar Temple located at Changi Village. Several outreach activities were extended to overseas community organizations in Indonesia and Vietnam through charity events and free health screenings.[citation needed]
Tan Tock Seng Hospital is a tertiary referral hospital in Singapore, located in Novena. Named after Tan Tock Seng, the hospital has 45 clinical and allied health departments, 16 specialist centres and is powered by more than 8,000 healthcare staff. Tan Tock Seng Hospital is Singapore's second-largest acute care general hospital with over 1,500 beds. TTSH has the busiest trauma centre in the country; 100 trauma cases are seen every day and 100 trauma surgeries are performed daily.
Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is an academic health science centre and tertiary referral hospital in Singapore. It is located next to the Bukit Merah and Chinatown districts of the Central Region, close to the Outram Community Hospital (OCH), which functions as a supplementary community and rehabilitation hospital to SGH for newly discharged patients. There is also the Outram Polyclinic to complement outpatient care. All of these institutions are operated by SingHealth, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The National University Hospital (NUH) is a tertiary referral hospital and academic medical centre in Singapore, located in Kent Ridge. It is a 1,160-bed tertiary hospital serving more than 670,000 outpatients and 49,000 inpatients and serves as a clinical training centre and research centre for the medical and dental faculties of the National University of Singapore (NUS).
St John of God Geelong Hospital is a 284-bed hospital providing inpatient and outpatient care in the Barwon and south-west regions of Victoria.
Raigmore Hospital is a health facility located in Inverness, Scotland. It serves patients from the local area as well as providing specialist services to patients from across the Highland area. It is a teaching hospital, educating a range of healthcare professionals in association with the Universities of Aberdeen and Stirling. It is managed by NHS Highland.
Singapore Health Services, commonly known as SingHealth, is the largest group of healthcare institutions in Singapore. Established in 2000, the group consists of four public hospitals, three community hospitals, five national specialty centres and a network of eight polyclinics. The Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is the largest hospital in the group and serves as the flagship hospital for the cluster.
St. Michael's Hospital is a teaching hospital and medical centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1892 with the founding goal of taking care of the sick and the poor of Toronto's inner city. The hospital provides tertiary and quaternary services in cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, inner city health, and therapeutic endoscopy. It is one of two Level 1 adult trauma centres in Greater Toronto, along with the larger Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. As trauma centres, both St. Michael's and Sunnybrook are equipped with helipads. It is one of several teaching hospitals of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and is part of the Unity Health Toronto hospital network.
Alexandra Hospital (AH) is a district general hospital located in Queenstown, Singapore that provides acute and community care under the National University Health System.
Fazl-e-Omar Hospital, Rabwah is a private health care institute in an area of Punjab, Pakistan. It is run by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Founded in 1958, it provides hospital services to the local community and patients from towns and villages from further afield.
Stobhill Hospital is located in Springburn in the north of Glasgow, Scotland. It serves the population of North Glasgow and part of East Dunbartonshire. It is managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Middlemore Hospital is a major public hospital in the suburb of Ōtāhuhu, Auckland, New Zealand. The hospital has approximately 800 beds. There are 24 operating theatres across two sites.
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System(SRHS) is one of South Carolina's largest healthcare systems. SRHS draws patients primarily from the areas of Spartanburg, Cherokee, Union, and Greenville counties (all located in the Piedmont region of South Carolina), as well as Rutherford and Polk counties (located in western North Carolina). Spartanburg General Hospital was organized under the authority of the South Carolina General Assembly in 1917. It officially became the Spartanburg Regional Health Services District, Inc., a political subdivision of the State of South Carolina, by the charter granted by the Secretary of State of South Carolina on May 1, 1995.
Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is Singapore's first general hospital and also its oldest and largest hospital. It is located along Outram Road, in the heart of a medical hub known as the Outram Campus (comprising several medical institutions including the Health Promotion Board and Health Sciences Authority). The hospital's history spans nearly two centuries and can be traced back to the British colonial era of 19th century Singapore.
Founded in 1961, Carroll Hospital Center is a branch of Lifebridge Health located in Westminster, Maryland. Carroll Hospital offers comprehensive medical care, with specialties including minimally invasive surgery and a state-of-the-art cancer center.
The Hospital of St Cross is a National Health Service hospital on Barby Road, in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, managed by the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. It is on the south edge of Rugby above a steep slope running down to the Sow Brook valley.
St John of God Murdoch Hospital is a 511-bed private non-profit hospital located in the southern suburbs of Perth in Western Australia, immediately adjacent to the public Fiona Stanley Hospital campus. The distance between the entrances to the emergency departments of these two hospitals is approximately 390 m (427 yd).
Raffles Medical Group (RMG), is a private healthcare provider in Asia, operating medical facilities in thirteen cities in Singapore, China, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Camden and Campbelltown Hospitals are New South Wales public hospitals servicing the Macarthur region in South West Sydney. Camden and Campbelltown hospitals operate under a single, common executive management structure, with services delivered across both hospitals.
Assisi Hospice is a hospice facility in Singapore that provides palliative care to terminally ill patients. It is founded, owned, and run by the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital is the largest Malaysian government-owned public hospital and higher specialised hospital in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Hospital opened in 1870, HKL is a not-for-profit institution and serves as the flagship hospital of the Malaysian public healthcare system. This hospital serves as a tertiary and referral hospital. It is located on 150 acres of prime land in the city with 84 wards and 2,300 beds, making it one of the largest hospitals in the world. More than 90 per cent of the beds in HKL are allocated for subsidized patients, providing access to an internationally established standard of affordable healthcare.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
