Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am heartened by the turnout today at this NTUC "Better Health Better Life" Symposium. The initiative of NTUC to drive home the vital message of good health to all Singaporeans is indeed timely. September is also the National Heatlhy Lifestyle Campaign month.

I understand from the organisers of this Symposium cum exhibition, that the support of NTUC members, their families as well as corporate and institutional sponsors has been encouraging. And this is in spite of the current economic recession which has, understandably, focused people’s attention on bread and butter issues.

Speaking of bread and butter issues, the current recession is as much a problem arising out of the restructuring of the world economy and globalisation, as it is a problem of the cyclical downturns in the business cycle and the electronics industry. For our workers, the question of staying employable until one’s retirement is very much the priority issue. Therefore, training and retraining, and maintaining habits of lifelong learning are crucial. It is equally important to maintain one’s physical and mental health in order to remain employable. Having good physical and mental health is also fundamental to a good quality of life.

Even though Singaporeans are enjoying longer life expectancy now and the state of health among the younger generation is generally very good, the state of health among the older (i.e. those in their fifties and above) Singaporeans is not something that we can be very proud of. For example, the incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol are high by comparison with other developed countries. This is partly a legacy of poor food habits, poor health consciousness and poor health maintenance among the older generation. In that regard, the younger generation is likely to do better, given our years of efforts at health promotion, and improvements in both the provision and the financing of health care services. However, we still have to watch out for such things as obesity among the young, and physical fitness and exercise habits among the adults.

Prevention is always better than cure. This axiom is most applicable in health matters. Community health promotion programmes are effective ways of spreading awareness and promoting preventive measures against major illnesses. I would like to commend NTUC Healthcare’s commitment to health promotion among its members and the public. This Symposium is in fact part of NTUC Healthcare’s annual community programmes to educate the public about common health issues.

I understand that issues like "Healthy weight management" will be covered in today’s Symposium. Perhaps it is an irony of our times that half of the world today is trying to lose weight and the other half, trying to gain some weight! But for affluent societies, maintaining a healthy weight (or optimum weight) can help minimise the incidence of weight-related illnesses like hypertension and diabetics resulting from obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle.

Another section of today’s Symposium is on "Pill popping for preventive health". There are some people who think taking as many vitamins and health supplements as possible will help them prevent illness. This is not necessarily true. It will be more effective if we take only those supplements that we need, according to our own individual requirements. How do we know which supplements or which vitamins we should take? Well, the pharmacists will be able to advise us.

I am glad to note that another session is devoted to the topic of menopause. This is a passage of life that we all have to go through for both genders. Men are no exception! I have noted that the organisers have cleverly spelt this word out as "me-no-pause". Indeed, this period is merely a period of transition in life. If managed properly, with knowledge, self-understanding and treatment where required, we can all successfully go through this transition, with no great disruption or deterioration in our quality of life.

Health is wealth. I am pleased to see that you are taking a proactive approach to invest your time and money in attending today’s symposium. Very often, it is taking the first step that counts. A proactive approach to health maintenance and disease prevention is absolutely necessary.

I have touched on the high prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes and high blood cholesterol among Singaporeans over 50 years of age. According to the 1998 National Health Survey, more than half of these persons were actually not aware that they had these conditions. If these conditions are not detected and treated early, they can lead to heart disease and stroke, which are among the top killers in Singapore. Persons with high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol level usually have no symptoms. The only way to detect these conditions is through health screening.

The Ministry of Health started last year to offer large scale community health screening programmes to those aged 50 years and above, to help them detect those three conditions. The health screening is heavily subsidized by the government. For the tests that cost more than $20, participants are charged only at $5 per person. Grassroots organisations provide further subsidies, so that in some constituencies, the participants are charged only $1-2 each. Widespread publicity has been given to the health screening programme, with grassroots organisations helping to mobilise the population. To date, around 24,000 persons have been screened. This may appear to be a high number. However, this actually constitutes only around 20% - 25% of those eligible in those wards which have held such community based health screening programmes. One common reason cited for not coming forward for the screening is the fear to know (that they have the disease). Some also give the reason that they fear high medication costs should they be found with high blood pressure, diabetes or high blood cholesterol level. On the other hand, however, if they do not detect and treat these conditions early, they could develop serious complications and they would then need to spend more, as well as suffer a lower quality of life.

For those who worry about the costs of medication for the above conditions, the government has actually been providing subsidized care at the polyclinics throughout the years. Since October last year, the care of diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol in polyclinics has been further enhanced through a structured care programme to provide detailed documentation, consultation, case review and follow-ups of patients.

NTUC has established the Unity NTUC Healthcare chain of pharmacies with the social objective of making available affordable medicines to Singaporeans. The 28 pharmacies in the chain serve as a good competitor and benchmark for other pharmacies. In addition to selling drugs and medicinal products at lower prices , the NTUC pharmacies have also been serving the community by providing health promotion advice to the consumers. NTUC Healthcare has organised regularly health promotion seminars and workshops such as today’s Symposium. I sincerely commend NTUC Healthcare for all these years’ efforts and contributions in raising public awareness and promoting healthy practices among our population.

With this, I wish you all a fruitful and informative Health Symposium.

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