SINGAPORE: Instead of 'Alexandra hospital @ Yishun', the new general hospital in Yishun has been named 'Khoo Teck Puat Hospital'.

This was announced by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan at a HIMSS AsiaPac 2007 conference on Wednesday morning.

The late Khoo Teck Puat was a banker and philanthropist.

The Health Minister said when he shared his ideas of a "hassle-free" system at the new hospital, Mr Khoo's family decided to donate S$125 million towards building and funding the hospital.

S$100 million will be used to fund part of the construction costs and S$25 million will go into a welfare fund to help needy patients.

The hospital said parts of the new facility are scheduled to open in early 2010.

The initial timeline was delayed by about three months because of the Indonesian sand ban and disruption to granite supplies.

This forced contractors to bring in more equipment, cranes and workers to make up for the time lost.

The disruption started in the middle of January and ended when the contractors sourced for different suppliers.

Fresh supply was received in the middle of March.

When ready, Mr Khaw said the new hospital would be different from other hospitals as it promises to put patients first and aims to minimise bureaucracy and paperwork.

The new Khoo Teck Puat hospital will also be well-linked to clinics and other step-down care providers in the neighbourhood so that patients can be transferred seamlessly.

He said: "Conceptually, these ideas may seem to be simple, logical requirements as nobody deliberately sets out to build a "hassle-full" hospital. In reality, however, it is a tall order for not only must we get the hardware aspects right, we must put in place the supportive software.

"I am glad the hospital development team took up the challenge readily. They are working feverishly and are already trying out new ideas at the existing Alexandra Hospital, with encouraging results."


- CNA/so/yy