Date: 1st June Saturday
NCCS-SCS Rehabilitation Centre Opening Ceremony
Welcome Remarks by Prof Lim Soon Thye, CEO, NCCS
1 June Saturday, 11.40am
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Ms Jane Ittogi
Mr Lee Meng Tat, Chairman of SCS
Mr Albert Ching, CEO of SCS
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. Thank you for joining us here today for the official opening of the NCCS-SCS Rehabilitation Centre. This year, NCCS commemorates 25 years of delivering quality cancer care, and we are glad to be able to keep improving care and treatment outcomes for our patients as we celebrate this milestone.
2. There is strong evidence that rehabilitation plays an important role in mitigating the impact of cancer and the side effects of cancer treatment. Cancer rehab has always played an integral part of a patient’s overall treatment plan to ensure they remain active and well throughout the stages of their illness. In the past, NCCS patients who needed rehabilitation were referred to services such as physiotherapy, dietician, speech and occupational therapy located at different locations across the SGH Campus. Now, with the opening of the NCCS-SCS Rehabilitation Centre, Singapore’s first tertiary cancer rehab centre, patients can conveniently receive the multi-disciplinary clinical and rehab care they need under one roof at NCCS.
3. Patients about to start cancer treatment, currently undergoing cancer treatment or those who have recently completed cancer treatment, have more medically complex needs that require regular specialist intervention. They often experience various symptoms or treatment-related side effects such as abnormal blood counts and bone pain, which require expertise and closer monitoring in a healthcare setting. It is this group of patients who would be referred to the NCCS-SCS Rehabilitation Centre for their rehabilitation needs.
4. Our team of healthcare professionals including rehabilitation physicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and dietitians at the rehab centre are equipped to provide tertiary level care for patients with cancer across all phases of cancer rehab -preventative, restorative, supportive and palliative. When patients complete the tertiary rehab care they need here, they will be seamlessly transited to community rehab providers, ensuring that they are equipped and supported to keep healthy and well in the community.
5. NCCS and SCS enjoy a close, longstanding partnership and we have collaborated on several joint programmes over the years to support cancer patients and survivors to improve their quality of life through their cancer journey. We are gratified that today’s opening brings to fruition yet another successful partnership.
6. I would like to thank President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Ms Jane Ittogi, for honouring us and officially opening the NCCS-SCS Rehab Centre.
7. Today marks the culmination of months of planning, seamless collaboration and hard work by our teams from NCCS, SGH and SCS. Kudos to all of you for making the first tertiary rehabilitation centre a reality!
8. With our rapidly ageing population and rising cancer incidence rates, I am confident the NCCS-SCS Rehab Centre will benefit many cancer patients and survivors in Singapore for the years
to come.
Thank you.