I am pleased to join you this afternoon for the official opening of the Jamiyah Nursing Home.

When we launched Singapore 21 three years ago, our vision was to get Singaporeans to participate actively in the life of the nation. We hoped to encourage volunteerism, active citizenship and shared responsibility. We sought to create a Singapore where each one of us individually plays a part, but we also all work together as one team.

We wanted Singaporeans not only to talk and argue about what the Government should do, but to actively do something themselves for their fellow citizens. Words must be followed up by deeds, and people must commit time and energy to causes which they believe in.

This active cooperation is critical, if Singapore is to be a strong and resilient society. For our policies to succeed, the Government needs the full partnership of the people sector and the private sector. Schools alone are not able to mould good citizens. Neither can the Government, by itself, provide all the social services we need. The public sector must seek out partners in the people and private sectors to accomplish these tasks.

The Jamiyah Nursing Home is a commendable initiative in line with the ideals of Singapore 21. It illustrates how the people sector can take the initiative to help our less fortunate fellow Singaporeans, and how the Government can lend the people sector a hand in this effort. The Government, for example, provided a capital grant of $8 million for the building works, furniture and equipment of the Jamiyah Nursing Home. In addition, it will provide over $1.5 million annually, in the form of subsidies for the patients and a rental subsidy for the land on which the Home sits. Jamiyah Singapore, with its experience in helping the disabled, took the lead in planning and building the Home, visiting other nursing homes in Singapore and abroad for ideas. It will run the home, providing the nursing, medical and other care, and finding the volunteers and staff to run the various programmes.

The Nursing Home is part our overall effort to put in place a comprehensive, well integrated framework of programmes and facilities to care for the growing number of elderly Singaporeans as our population ages.

On its part, the Ministry of Health has implemented various programmes to cater to the healthcare needs of the elderly, and ensure that they remain healthy and functionally independent for as long as possible. The Community Health Screening Programme, for example, seeks to pick up diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol among those aged 50 and above, so that they can undergo treatment early to keep these conditions under control. MOH is also ensuring that primary healthcare is easily accessible and affordable at GP clinics and government polyclinics. At the same time, specialist care is available at the hospital level, with 3 geriatric departments in Alexandra, Changi and Tan Tock Seng Hospitals catering to the complex needs of the elderly.

Some elderly, however, become disabled because of stroke, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and dementia. They need long term care and rehabilitation, which would not be feasible for government hospitals to provide. It would be best if families could care for them at home, as most elderly would prefer to be in a familiar home environment. However, there may be times when the family is unable to cope. They may need to seek nursing home care while they make adjustments at home and to their lifestyles, in order to eventually be able to care for their elderly family members at home.

Facilities like the Jamiyah Nursing Home fill this critical need for step down medical care. The Government will continue to support such initiatives through various schemes, including the Government Financial Assistance Scheme for VWOs implemented in 1990. MOH has disbursed over $200 million to VWOs providing rehabilitation and step down care services, particularly for the elderly, for their operating expenditure, and over $225 million for their development costs. We will build on this collaboration with the people sector.

The Jamiyah Nursing Home has been built on the principle that the care and welfare of people with disabilities, including the elderly, should be everyone’s concern – the family, the entire Singapore community and the government. The Home is the first nursing home in Singapore catering to the special dietary needs of Muslim patients. However, its doors are also open to non-Muslims as well. Currently, about 20% of the patients are non-Muslim, but the Home is strongly encouraging the admission of more. This is a commendable effort by Jamiyah Singapore to promote multi-racialism in Singapore. I congratulate everyone involved in this project, especially all those in Jamiyah Singapore.

I now have great pleasure in declaring the Jamiyah Nursing Home open.

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