Secondary 2 History Chapter 10 Supplementary Notes

PUBLIC HEALTH AND MEDICAL SERVICES

• Medical services are used for treating diseases and benefit those who are sick
  
• Public health services are for preventing diseases and benefit the general public including those who are sick and those who are not.

In the 19th Century, the government did not provide enough medical and public health facilities. Many people were dying of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis (TB), beri-beri, diarrhoea and cholera. The government saw the need to improve the situation.


Health and medical services began in Singapore as early as the 19th Century under the British Colonial rule. The PAP government continues to make changes and improvements to the system.


Professor W J Simpson an expert from England did a Sanitary Report on Singapore and reported that most people were living in dark, overcrowded and poorly ventilated homes. There was no proper sanitation and toilets were dirty and unhygienic as the removal of night-soil was done by the bucket system. Moreover, there were many mosquito breeding places such as swamps and clogged drains. The government decided to make improvements to the situation.


As a result of the report, the Municipal Council (council in charge of town planning uHE nder the British rule in Singapore) spent large sums of money on improving public health:

1. The Municipal engineers built a network of underground sewage pipes to provide households with modern sanitation.
2. The town was provided with a better supply of clean piped water from reservoirs.
3. Incinerators were used to burn rubbish
4. The Singapore Improvement Trust cleared away slums.
5. Anti-mosquito measures were carried out.

In the 20th Century, the colonial government provided more medical services:

1. More hospitals were built - the third Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Middleton Hospital, a bigger General Hospital, the Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital and other hospitals.
2. More maternal and child health clinics were opened
3. The school health services were started.
   

Two private hospitals were built in the early years of this century:

1. Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital
2. St Andrew's Mission Hospital

A medical college was set up in 1905 to train local doctors.



Post-war medical developments:

1. The Singapore Anti-Tuberculosis Association (SATA) was formed to fight tuberculosis.
2. A number of hospitals were upgraded and turned into 'general hospitals'.
3. A number of clinics were turned into polyclinics.
4. A network of dental clinics was set up in schools.

The work of the Ministry of Environment:

1. It looks after public health services.
2. It controls hawkers to make sure they are clean.
3. It ensures that environmental health laws are obeyed by the public.

All these developments in medical services and environmental health services have helped to make Singapore a clean and healthy city.