SingHealth to conduct operations free

Specialists from Singapore General Hospital (SingHealth) were in Sri Lanka to share the latest medical technology and expertise with Sri Lankan doctors.

Dr. I. Puvanendran from SingHealth said that they will conduct operations free and also donate the equipment to the hospitals. He said in the 1970s Sri Lankans went to Singapore and contributed to their development and today we have come to reciprocate.

In the 1970s Singapore knew what high standards Sri Lanka had. Dr. Puvanendran, himself a Sri Lankan who left Sri Lanka in 1971 for Singapore specialises in Sleep disorders.

Dr. Edward Owe said that they welcome the opportunity to cross share insights in medical advances with doctors in Sri Lanka and hope this is the start of many more to come. "We have a history of sharing medical expertise through conferences, fellowships and training sessions", he said.

The high patient-volumes in SGH have allowed our healthcare professionals to hone their skills and build clinical expertise. Most importantly, it has allowed SGH to be early adopters of proven medical technology, which has improved patient outcomes.

The most significant of these technologies is the suite of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) techniques for the treatment of various conditions from cancer to slip discs.

In addition, SGH was the first in Asia to use computer-assisted and MIS techniques for knee replacement surgery in 2005. It is also the training ground for doctors in the region for new MIS techniques for spine surgery.

Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is Singapore's largest acute tertiary hospital and national referral centre. Dedicated to providing multi disciplinary medical care and backed by state-of-the-art facilities, it offers team-based quality patient care that is widely acknowledged to be among the best in the world.