Medical and nursing students offer free health screening for Taman Jurong residents

27 Jan 2010

Some 250 students from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSoM) and the NUS Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies have started conducting free health screening to elderly residents in the Taman Jurong area. Witnessing the start of the "Taman Jurong Neighbourhood Health Screening" on 23 January 2010 was Minister for Finance Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is also Member of Parliament for Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and Adviser to Jurong GRC Grassroots Organisations.

"The effort, work and thought put in by the students in organising the Taman Jurong NHS has been really outstanding. As my team and I work together with them to help our residents, we could see their sincerity and enthusiasm to serve the community," said Mr Shanmugaratnam. He added that the project showed what was possible when tertiary students with knowledge and ideas work together with the grassroots to identify problems help residents.

First started in 2008 by a group of medical students with the support of the NUS Medical Society and the NUS YLLSoM, the health screening aims to create awareness of diseases which include hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidaemia as well as cancers. The health screening also seeks to address the potential social or financial issues faced by residents.

Over a period of three months, the medical and nursing students will conduct door-to-door health screening at selected blocks of flats which have been identified as having a high proportion of low-income families. To-date, 600 residents have benefited from the screening.

The health screening has support in the form of advice, funding and provision of health education materials from organisations which include Taman Jurong Grassroots Organisations, the Singapore Anti-Tuberculosis Association Diabetic Society of Singapore, the Singapore Cancer Society, the Health Promotion Board and the National University Health System (NUHS).

Year 4 medical student Mr Tan Chong Keat , who chaired the programme in 2008, said that as doctors-in-training, there was a need to reach out to more needy and low-income families. "Hence, we embarked on a multi-disease health screening with a comprehensive follow-up system to encourage residents to seek early medical attention. Besides providing medical support, we also work closely with the Taman Jurong grassroots volunteers to address potential social and financial issues faced by the Taman Jurong residents," he said.