TAN Ser Kiat
Medical Services in Singapore,
Accession Number 003084
- Oral History Centre
Source
- 4
Total Reels
- Patricia Lee
Interviewer
- 03:07:28
Total Running Time
- English
Language
Copyright Notice
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Reel/Disc 1 of 4
Metadata
- 15 Nov 2006
Recording Date
- 00:52:40
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
Born 22 January 1946, Singapore. Parents were immigrants from China. Family background. His recollections of his childhood days at North Boat Quay. Eating Bak Kut Teh at Ellenborough market. How street basketball was played. Swam at the Singapore River. Living conditions at North Boat Quay. His recollections of his primary school days at Whampoa English School. How he used to play along the Whampoa River. How he was held in Monk's Hill Secondary School while waiting for admission to Raffles' Institution (RI). How he felt a sense of awe when he first arrived in RI. Description of the transition from Whampoa School to Raffles Institution. Explanation of how he found learning in RI emiching. His opinion on the difference between teaching and learning. Tribute to his literature teacher, Mr P K Heman. Reasons for taking up medicine. History of the RI Natural History Museum. How he turned down the Colombo Plan scholarship to read Veterinary Science. How he supported himself in medical school through part bursary and part giving tuition. Recollections of ragging in medical school. Benefits of ragging. Recollections of his learning experience in medicine school. How he would carbon copy notes from his lady classmates. Tribute to Prof Wong Hock Boon. His interest in surgery.
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Reel/Disc 2 of 4
Metadata
- 29 Nov 2006
Recording Date
- 00:53:53
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
Recollection of his graduation. Convocation was held at the then National Theatre. His house officer days at Medical Unit II, Outram Road General Hospital. Description of his working hours. Types of cases he had seen. Medical Units I, II and III saw the same types of cases. There were no sub-specialisations then. His impressions of Prof Khoo Oon Teik. Competition among the three units was keen and healthy. His impressions of Goon Sek Mun and Yvonne Salmon, "B" unit of Kandang Kerbau Hospital (KKH). Description of the "A", "B" and "U" unit in KKH. Impressions of the Departmental Heads. Comparison of competition in the past and in the present. He joined the Singapore Armed Forces under the short-term engagement scheme. His postings to 6SIR and Central Manpower Base (CMPB). How he took up surgery for his post-graduate studies. How he was instrumental in helping to set up the Changi Hospital in 1976. Types of surgical cases he had seen in Changi. Reason for his posting to Alexandra Hospital before he returned to General Hospital. His overseas postgraduate studies in Orthopaedic Surgery. His interest in hand surgery. Significant milestones in the development of orthopaedic surgery in Singapore. How Prof Balachandran was instrumental in helping to push the frontier of orthopaedic surgery in Singapore. Description of his job scope as Head of Orthopaedic Surgery in Singapore General Hospital. Aim of setting up the Department of Experimental Surgery. How they would work on dead unclaimed bodies and animals.
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Reel/Disc 3 of 4
Metadata
- 29 Nov 2006
Recording Date
- 00:51:20
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
Description of the Department of Experimental Surgery. Types of animals used for experiment. His response to the restructuring of the Singapore General Hospital in 1989. Impact on the leadership and the practice of medicine. How he gradually took on administrative appointments. How the characteristics of a surgeon suited the judgment call of a medical administrator. Challenges he faced as a young administrator. His appointment as Chairman, Medical Board, Singapore General Hospital from 1998 to 2000. His views on the change of policy from restructured hospitals to the administration of health services to two clusters. It reflected the change of leadership preferences. Positive attributes and drawbacks of restructuring. Rationale for introducing cluster medical services. Economies of scales and sharing of medical expertise. How the selected hospitals and national specialty centres were group under the SingHealth group. His opinion on the competition and health care services provided by the two clusters. Introduction of "coop-tition" between the SingHealth group and the National Health group. He does not believe in the poaching of staff from the other cluster. His views on the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Explanation on the outcome of SARs and impact on the medical leadership. Lessons we can learnt from the SARs incident. Importance of leadership in managing a major crisis like SARs. Need for a standard operation procedures.
Possibility of a bio-terrorism attack. The potency of small pox viruses.
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Reel/Disc 4 of 4
Metadata
- 13 Dec 2006
Recording Date
- 00:29:35
Running Time
- MP3
Format
- Open Access
Conditions Governing Access
Synopsis
His future plans for SingHealth. Vision is to tap on each other's talent to build a worlddclass academic health care organization. Leadership renewal in SingHealth. Advantages of having a medical professional as a medical administrator. Provision of medical services for the public versus for commercial profits. How these commercial profits can be ploughed back to the public. How SingHealth and National Health group (NHG) can cooperate and yet compete with one another. His comment on the future development of medicine in Singapore. The move from importing technology and strategies to innovation and pioneering works. How Singapore is recognized as the cutting edge of medicine in Singapore. It is the interest of SingHealth to make healthcare affordable.
His advice for young and aspiring doctors.
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