KHOO QI RUI NATASHEA

Background Information of Organization:

Formed in 2000, SingHealth is the largest of Singapore’s three healthcare clusters and operates a network of healthcare institutions including 8 polyclinics located in the east, southeast and northeast of Singapore.

Background Information of Project/Tasks:

Currently under construction, Eunos Polyclinic is to be finished by 2023 and is under Singhealth Polyclinics. The site on which it is built was the original site of the old Still Road Polyclinic and subsequently Jamiyah Children’s Home. We were tasked to find historical and current information on the Eunos area, the old Still Road Polyclinic and Jamiyah Children’s Home, and present the information through creative means.

Elaboration - Record of Activities:

For the first day of WOW!, we were given a tour around Pasir Ris Polyclinic and a briefing about the new Eunos Polyclinic and its new facilities.

Over the next few days, our first step was to use the internet to see if we could find any bits of information about Eunos, the old Still Road Polyclinic and Jamiyah Children’s Home. As we expected, there was plenty of information about the history of Eunos, but much lesser for Still Road Polyclinic and Jamiyah Children’s Home.

For Still Road Polyclinic, we found some online PDFs of books about the history of Singapore’s healthcare system that mentioned some details such as when and why it was closed, but we also wanted greater insight into the everyday operations of the polyclinic.

Thus, we decided to interview nurses who had worked at the old polyclinic, as well as one who had been a patient there. They provided much valuable information and a closer look into the past, talking about their daily work and everyday lives at the clinic and told several anecdotes, such as that of a mother who gave birth in the waiting room of the polyclinic.

However, we were lacking information about the Eunos area itself in the present - Eunos is also known as Geylang East today. We hence decided to pay a visit to the area to get a better sense of the residents and community the new polyclinic was to serve, and to understand how and why the polyclinic had been designed in the way described during the briefing. During our trip, we noticed that the area was seemingly divided in two, with HDBs and industrial estates in one area, and many apartments and private landed property in the Telok Kurau area within Eunos. We also realised that the Eunos area is also located near the Geylang Serai area, which mainly consists of Malay-Muslims, and this was reflected in how we saw many Malay-run stores in shophouses along Still Road. In addition, majority of residents were middle-aged or elderly, causing it to be a mature estate, which allowed us to see the need for several facilities mentioned in the briefing such as a PMA-friendly area and eldercare services.

Afterwards, we paid a visit to the Marine Parade Library to find out more about the history of Singapore’s healthcare system. While we were there, we found a book “Caring for our People: 50 Years of Healthcare in Singapore", which illustrated the large role nurses played in primary healthcare, and also mentioned The Muslim Missionary Society Singapore (Jamiyah)’s history and background, as the Society has also contributed much to the healthcare of Singaporeans in addition to taking care of the underprivileged.

However, the information about the Jamiyah Children’s Home found thus far was still insufficient. We had previously emailed the Home to enquire about such, but we received no response. Hence we decided to search on the internet. Thankfully, we were able to find information, such as how the Children’s Home was used as a temporary home for the Malay-Muslim residents of Woodlands Home of the Aged when the latter was demolished to expand the eldercare sector into more areas with four new homes.

Elaboration – Record of Results/Deliverables:

We decided to present our findings in two posters, one about the history of Eunos and Jamiyah Children’s Home, and the other focusing solely on the history of Still Road Polyclinic. We also decided to create a model showing the layout of the first floor of the old Still Road polyclinic made of painted cardboard and Legos. We based our model off a drawing of the layout and old photos given to us by the former nurses we interviewed.

3 Content Knowledge/ Skills learnt:

• I learnt the importance of self- discipline and time management. Due to the nature of our assignment, our schedule was relatively flexible/free and easy, which meant that rigorous project meetings/progress check-ins had to be self-initiated and that deadlines had to be self-imposed and maintained so that we did not fall behind.
• I learnt that polyclinics in the past were not referred to as such. Rather, they were called Outpatient Dispensaries (OPDs) and Maternal and Child Health clinics (MCH)
• I also learnt the importance of perseverance and self- motivation. Since the histories of Still Road Polyclinic and Jamiyah Children's Home are not well known or widely published, we had to gather information from various sources. Although at times it was indeed frustrating and disheartening, we wanted to do a good job and do justice to their histories, thus we persevered.

2 Interesting Aspects:

• Finding out about what daily life in polyclinics was like in the past, which normally we would not have the chance to or have to take the initiative to find out. Stories such as nurses having to prepare materials such as cotton balls and gauze by themselves, and their tools were non-disposable which meant they had to wash and sterilise/disinfect them; or riding on sampans to get to work and their patients in the event of floods fascinated me.
• Discovering more about the history of Singapore's healthcare, particularly the primary healthcare sector, and how it is closely intertwined with policies, laws and politics.

1 Takeaway for life:

Civil/public servants, in this case medical staff, deserve our appreciation as they work hard to protect and maintain our health. We should be grateful for and appreciate the current medical technology that we have - it is a reflection of how far humanity has come in the fight against illnesses and disease