Introduction
NCCS is the first institution to establish a stand-alone Department of Palliative Medicine in Singapore and in the Southeast Asia region. Palliative Medicine is the discipline which works to improve the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness. Its core expertise includes the management of pain and other distressing symptoms caused by the disease or its treatment, regardless of the stage and type of disease. Common conditions dealt with include cancer at any stage where symptoms are troublesome, HIV/AIDS, and also advanced stages of neurological disease, kidney, heart, lung and liver failure. Palliative care is often given together with therapies that control or slow down disease progression, including attempts at curative treatment where the rates of success are not good. A holistic approach is taken. Besides symptom control, attention is given to the practical arrangements of providing care at the place of the patient's choice, which is often in his own home, and the social, spiritual and emotional needs of the patient and the care-givers.
Areas of special interest within Palliative Medicine include cancer care, HIV/AIDS care, paediatric palliative care and end-organ failure, such as renal and heart failure.
Palliative Medicine as a Specialty
Since 2006, Palliative Medicine has been recognised in Singapore as a medical subspecialty in line with the UK and Australia. Entry to specialty training may be via Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Paediatric Medicine, Medical Oncology, or Family Medicine. For further information, please contact the Chairman of the Subspecialty Training Committee (Palliative Medicine), A/P Cynthia Goh at:
Department of Palliative Medicine
National Cancer Centre
11 Hospital Drive, Singapore 169610
Tel: (65) 64368183 / Fax: (65) 62207490
Services available
The Department of Palliative Medicine at NCCS conducts specialist clinics four times weekly at NCCS. It also undertakes ward based consultative palliative care services for patients with cancer and also advanced nonmalignant diseases in Singapore General Hospital (SGH). These services provide pain and symptom management for patients with advanced disease, give psychosocial support for families and help plan for seamless care at home and at other care institutions.
The Department supports community Palliative Care services by providing teaching, consultation, and taking part in ward rounds and team meetings at Bright Vision Hospital, Metta Hospice Care and Agape Methodist Hospice. The Department welcomes the sharing of care with the patients’ family physicians. The Department is also supporting the start of a palliative care service at Changi General Hospital.
Training Programmes
An important area of the Department’s work is teaching both locally and regionally within the Asia Pacific region. The Department spearheaded the formation of the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN), comprising individuals and organisations working in palliative care from 22 countries to promote the development of the specialty in the region.
The Department provides clinical attachments for local and overseas medical students on electives, local and overseas doctors on clinical fellowships and local and overseas nurses and observers from other agencies in Singapore and from the region.
>>Click [here] for Clinical Fellowships in Palliative Care are available at NCCS.
The Department, in conjunction with the Lien Center for Palliative Care (see below) organises and runs the Graduate Certificate I (Palliative Care) of Flinders University for doctors and nurses from the Southeast Asia region in a collaboration between NCCS and Flinders University. This is the first interdisciplinary university course in palliative care in Singapore. The programme is specially designed in response to the growing demand and need for palliative care locally and within the region. The Graduate Certificate I (Palliative Care) is a one-year programme which provides a structured and evidence-based framework for trainees to understand holistic care of people living with life- limiting illnesses. It includes modules on clinical assessment and management of commonly encountered symptoms as well as skills for communication on sensitive issues in the palliative care context.
>> Click [here] for Flinders application form.
Publications, Conference, Presentations and Research
The Department is actively involved in research with ongoing and planned projects to help develop the evidence base for the specialty. To see some of the ongoing research and recent conference presentations and publications:
>> Click [here] for Department of Palliative Medicine Research, Publications and Conference Activities.
Lien Centre For Palliative Care
The Lien Centre for Palliative Care (LCPC) was formed in 2008 as the result of collaboration between the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, the National Cancer Centre Singapore and Singhealth. The brief of the LCPC is to develop palliative care education and research throughout Singapore. LCPCC co-ordinates palliative care courses both for undergraduates and postgraduates and other health care professionals. LCPC is a separate organisation from the Department of Palliative Medicine but LCPC staff assist and collaborate in research undertaken by staff of the NCC Department of Palliative Medicine as well as other institutions in Singapore.
>>To access to Lien Centre website, please click [here].
|
