Dean’s Message

Medicine is all about people. Doctors look after the health of people and this itself gives all the purpose to our work. Equally, the lives of doctors are often a heartwarming and inspiring story about people and about life.

This is certainly true of Dr George Khoo Swee Tuan, a 1954 alumnus of the King Edward VII College of Medicine (the antecedent to NUS Medicine) and a true community doctor. He has tended to Rochor area residents since 1963. Some of his patients span four generations of the same family. Some were very poor and he would waive his fees for them. Others were opium addicts living in the area, which was rife with gangsters and assorted riff-raff. One tried to extort $200 in “protection money” to shield him against other gangsters; Dr Khoo bargained the man down to $8, he recalled in a recent interview with The Straits Times. “After some time, I realised I enjoy the profession, curing and helping people. And I realised I’m doing some good.”

He is still doing good; at 89 years of age, Dr Khoo continues to practise. He relocated his clinic from Rochor Centre, which has been closed for demolition, to Veerasamy Road in Little India last year. “I will continue to work as long as I’m fit and I feel wanted and useful. Many of my patients don’t believe me when I tell them my age. I tell them I won’t stop (working) as long as they come and see me.”

As 2017 draws to a close and a new year approaches, NUS Medicine alumnus like Dr Khoo reminds us that our work has no end, no finish line. Medicine exists to serve people in need, and as long as there are sick people, there will always be a need for healthcare professionals who express the values that our School has always stood for – unwavering care and concern for patients, steadfast devotion to duty, professional competence and excellence.

To this end, we were very heartened to see our medical and nursing students coming together once again with the support of healthcare institutions to conduct free health screening for low-income residents in HDB estates. It has been a decade since these screening exercises began and participation by students has become a much-anticipated rite of passage.

They also serve who toil away in the classrooms and laboratories, and the fruit of our teaching staff’s labour are the 448 MBBS, PhD, MSc and BSc students who graduated this year. They are now part of a healthcare workforce caring for the Singaporean community. Our teachers take heart that this year, 89 per cent of graduating students rated the quality of their educational experience at NUS Medicine as either good or excellent.

Meanwhile, our key Summit Research Programmes in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and tuberculosis are slowly but steadily adding to our knowledge and understanding of the origins and causes of these illnesses. I am confident that in time, working with our partners in clinical and research institutions here and around the world, we will begin to turn the tide in our favour in the search for better, more effective solutions to these diseases.

I have described NUS Medicine people at work; let me end by talking about our people at play and in this regard, I am very glad to tell you that Team Medicine won gold at this year’s NUS Rag Day competition in August. Not only did our students win Gold, they also won the Best Dance Performance award. Medicine students also excelled at the 29th SEA Games held last month in KL, Malaysia – congratulations to Bryan Ong Wei Loong (Gold, Men’s Water Polo), Samuel Koh Giap Yang (Silver, Rugby), Samuel Tan Wei Han (Silver, Men’s Wushu) and Muhammad Hafiz Bin Abdul Rased (Bronze, Men’s Field Hockey).

I am tempted to say that NUS Medicine people do it best, but it is much better to let their deeds speak for themselves!

With best wishes for a healthy, happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Khay Guan