Nursing home staff to be trained in end-of-life care under Dover Park Hospice, NTUC Health tie-up
The two-year initiative is part of efforts to address a critical need in Singapore’s fast-ageing society.
Singapore's Dover Park Hospice and NTUC Health have entered into a two-year partnership aimed at providing training in palliative and end-of-life care for the over 1,600 residents living in nursing homes. The initiative, a response to the growing need in Singapore's aging society, is set to begin early the following year at the NTUC Health Nursing Home in Geylang East, with potential expansion to the other five nursing homes operated by the co-operative.
The pilot program focuses on equipping frontline healthcare workers with skills to deliver palliative care, aiming to help residents receive end-of-life care in the comfort of their nursing homes. This initiative comes as Singapore grapples with the challenges of an ageing population, with over one in five citizens being 65 or older. In 2023, nearly two-thirds of residents died in hospitals, despite two-thirds preferring to die at home.
Energy, Trade and Industry Minister Tan See Leng highlighted the need to better support the end-of-life wishes and care preferences of patients, noting the growing demand for palliative care as people live longer with serious illnesses. Dover Park Hospice chairman Ong Hung Guan emphasized the need to shift from merely providing shelter from the storm to genuinely transforming the climate of end-of-life care.
Ong stressed that Dover Park Hospice must look beyond its facilities and homes, as caregivers face burnout, financial strain, and emotional exhaustion.
The tie-up between Dover Park Hospice and NTUC Health aims to assess and enhance existing palliative care capabilities, develop training and mentorship programs for community care staff, and share best practices and research into end-of-life care. The pilot stage will evaluate care outcomes and staff competency, symptom management, hospital transfers, and the ability to support residents in receiving appropriate end-of-life care within the nursing home, in line with their wishes.
NTUC Health CEO Choo Kin Poo emphasized that this initiative will equip staff with palliative care capabilities, enabling them to provide compassionate and comprehensive care that respects residents' comfort and wishes. Dover Park Hospice CEO Liew Li Lian stated that the partnership can help make quality end-of-life support accessible to more seniors within their communities.
Both organizations clarified that the initiative is not designed to increase costs for residents and their families, with care-related fees and subsidies governed by existing nursing-home funding and subsidy frameworks.
Written by urgent.news from Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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