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This page created April 2000 by Michael Wynne
Teaching hospitals
Singapore inherited the British system of medicine but there are also
a number of facilities practising traditional forms of medicine. It
has a good medical school and two high quality teaching hospitals,
the Singapore General Hospitals and the private National University
Hospital. Overall standards of health in the community compare very
favourably with other countries. These two hospitals will provide
services to visitors and will charge them a reasonable fee. These
hospitals serve the local community and are a safe option when ill.
The private sector in contrast is commercially driven and may be
patchy. Attempts may be made to persuade visitors into the other
private hospitals.
Private Hospitals
Of the private hospitals Gleneagles was started by a number of
doctors and performed well. It was purchased by Parkway Holdings in
the 1980's and to the best of my knowledge continued to perform
well.
The East Shore hospital (also known as the American hospital) was once owned by Dr Sundariason, a surgeon businessman who sold it to American Medical International (AMI). Sundariason went on to form the Airport Medical Centre which provided services to visitors at the airport until it lost the contract in the early 1990's. The Airport Centre admitted primarily to the two American corporate owned hospitals. Two of its doctors were suspended from practice by the Singapore Medical Council in 1991.
The Mount Elizabeth Hospital was also founded by doctors but was sold to National Medical Enterprises (NME) in 1985. NME, which was renamed Tenet Healthcare in 1994 also bought the East Shore Hospital from AMI.
Private care and business
With such a strong American corporate influence the private sector
came to regard medicine primarily as a business, although they paid
service to and identified with medical ethics and values. The
teaching hospitals maintained their English traditions. Relationships
with the more commercial private hospitals have in the past been
cool.
Singapore became a medical referral centre for the region. NME ran clinics and satellite facilities in surrounding countries. Insured travellers were flown into Singapore for care. Medical fees were comparable with the USA, and the business was very profitable. I first became concerned about NME's business practices in Singapore in 1989, two years before exposure of the scandal surrounding their US operations in 1991.
Tenet/NME sells up
After Tenet/NME's US guilty plea in 1994 Australia stepped in to
force Tenet/NME to sell its facilities. The extent of the pressures
on the company in Singapore are not known. Its image took a battering
when a doctor gave evidence describing very disturbing business
practices. The company did not even put up witnesses to dispute
these.
Tenet/NME sold all of its facilities in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to Parkway Holdings a Malaysian company in 1995. To the best of my knowledge there has never been any suggestion that Parkway has indulged in any of the practices which have so tarnished the credibility of Tenet/NME and other US corporate giants. Tenet/NME did however continue to manage some if not all of these facilities for Parkway for some years.
Vista Healthcare
Vista Healthcare was formed in Singapore in 1996 with a board of
directors comprised almost entirely of past US and Singapore NME
staff. It was backed by the Chase Manhattan bank. Michael Ford past
president of Tenet/NME's international division has operated as an
"International Health Care Consultant"
CLICK HERE -- to access the pages about Tenet/NME
CLICK HERE -- to learn about Tenet/NME's alleged business practices in Singapore
CLICK HERE -- for more information about Vista Healthcare