Alexandra Hospital (Abbreviation: AH; Chinese: 亚历山大医院) is a 400-bed hospital located in the south-western part of Singapore. Nestled in a 110,000 square metre land, the hospital is a picture of tranquil setting, lined with mostly colonial style buildings built since the late 1930s. It was also the site of a massacre during World War II.
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Established in 1938, the hospital served as the principal hospital for the British in the Far East and was known as the British Military Hospital. During the Battle of Singapore in February 1942, the hospital was the scene of a massacre by Japanese soldiers of the wounded British and some of the medical staff. After World War II to the 1970s, Alexandra Hospital remained as one of the most modern hospitals in Singapore right to the 1970s.
In its heyday, Alexandra Hospital was an institution that adopted cutting-edge medical technology and was the first hospital in Southeast Asia to successfully perform limb re-attachment to a patient. Alexandra Hospital possessed several well-known medical expertise. These include:
The hospital was handed over to the government of Singapore in 1971 and remained as Alexandra Hospital. On 1 October 2000, the hospital became a member of the National Healthcare Group when it underwent major upgrading of its facilities.
In 2001, plans were made to move to a new hospital in Jurong by 2006.[1][2] However, in 2004, these plans were scrapped in favour of a move to a new 500-bed hospital in Yishun to be called Northern General Hospital, by March 28, 2009.[3][4] (This hospital in Yishun is not to be confused with another new hospital planned for nearby Woodlands, which was announced in March 2006, on the basis that Northern General would not be enough to serve people living in the north.[5])
On May 16, 2007, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan while attending the HIMSS AsiaPac 2007 conference announced that the new general hospital in Yishun has been named Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.[6] The family of late Mr Khoo Teck Puat had donated S$125 million towards building and funding the hospital. The new hospital would be different from other hospitals as it promises to put patients first and aims to minimise bureaucracy and paperwork. It was initially planned for Alexandra Hospital to be closed after KTPH was opened, but the hospital will now remain in operation until Jurong General Hospital is completed by 2014 and was transferred to Jurong Health after August 2010.
There are gardens surrounding the hospital which include 500 plant species and over 100 butterfly species in the butterfly trail. Members of nature societies have used the hospital gardens as a study ground. The gardens were upgraded in 2000 under the direction of Ms. Rosalind Tan, a senior executive at the hospital’s operations department, who was recognised for her contributions towards environmental sustainability under the inaugural EcoFriend Award, awarded by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in June, 2007.[7]
In the gardens is a commemorative plaque honouring the brave soldiers and staff who were killed while defending the hospital in 1942. Some of the dead were victims of a Japanese counteroffensive where Japanese forces overran the hospital and executed staff and patients.
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