The development of critical care medicine in Singapore

The development of critical care medicine in Singapore is similar to that in other countries. The fact that intensive care work was not centralised meant that anaesthetists had to attend to patients who were to be found all over a large hospital. Moreover, up to 1967, there was only one ventilator in the Singapore General Hospital although this was commonly used. When open-heart surgery was restarted in 1967, the need for intensive care in the post-operative patients became obvious and a post-basic intensive care nursing course was subsequently started. The quest for an area to centralise intensive care also stepped up and as space in certain wards were generously given toward this cause, intensive care further developed. With the opening of the new Singapore General Hospital, critical care medicine is certainly ready to move toward an even more sophisticated standard.