Part Two: Singapore: a very warm welcome
We were delighted to be invited to be part of the UK delegation to Singapore, alongside, NHS Digital (Noel Gordon, Chair), and Healthcare UK, academics and innovative British companies.
HiTEC Conference
Our Singapore schedule started with the MOH Holdings’ HiTEC conference. The event was opened by a series of VIPs: firstly, Dr Amy Khor, Minister of State, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, next His Excellency Scott Wightman UK High Commissioner to Singapore, who welcomed the UK delegation on this, the 200th anniversary of UK-SG relationship. Another birthday was also celebrated – the 70th birthday of NHS – in the address from Noel Gordon, Chair of NHS Digital. Mr Gordon reviewed the UK’s transformational NHS programme of NHS, and the importance placed upon co-design within this vision. It was also a stark reminder of how the NHS model of universal health service free at the point of care, it is a system not able to ‘cherry pick’ customer segments like other sectors. Instead other levers are required to meet demand; inverting the service paradigm and bend the demand curve to community and tertiary services. Colleagues from Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Estates further shared the UK perspective on the relationship between health system services and infrastructure.