5 February 2015 Media Advisory Month-long Lunar New Year Celebrations at SGH Singapore General Hospital (SGH) will be spreading cheer in and outside the Hospital walls this Lunar New Year with concerts, gift packages and even sprucing up homes of elderly residents. The numerous activities will take place from 7 Feb to 5 Mar 2015. The activities will kick-off with the annual Project GroomOver on Saturday, 7 Feb 2015. Now in its sixth year, Project GroomOver is reaching out to more homes with more volunteers than ever before. Forty homes of needy and elderly residents staying in the Henderson and Bukit Merah areas will be cleaned and made elderly-friendly. A record 400 volunteers, comprising of doctors, nurses, allied health and administrative staff, partners and students, will be scrubbing floors, cleaning windows, painting and removing unwanted clutter. Residents will also be provided with household items such as pillows, mattresses and fans from a wish list. It is not just the houses that will be given the all clear. Pharmacist will also be on hand to sort out the elderly residents medications, and SingHealth Resident doctors will do a basic health screening. Following the Project GroomOver, members of the community will also be treated to a number of performances this Lunar New Year. On Monday, 16 Feb, SingHealth Nurses Volunteer Group will be organising a reunion dinner for more than 200 residents living in Kreta Ayer at the Kreta Ayer Community Centre. On the same day, more than 30 NUS Yong Loo Lin students from the Medical, Dental, Nursing and Pharmacy faculties will rove the wards at SGH to bring cheer to patients who are unable to go home. The students will greet patients with performances of traditional Lunar New Year songs. On the eve of Chinese New Year, SGH s senior management will visit the wards to present cheer packs to patients. Codenamed Project Oranges the outreach will also be extended to patients at the Specialist Outpatient Clinics. The Hospital s Lunar New Year celebrations will end in a musical crescendo with two concerts. The first will be co-organised with the Singapore SOKA Association and be held on Friday, 27 Feb at SGH. The concert will include a lion dance, festive songs and dancing. Musical celebrations will also take place with a spring concert on Thursday, 5 Mar. Patients and visitors will enjoy dance performances followed by choir and drumming acts. The event which is co-organised by Tanglin Cairnhill CCC will be attended by Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC, Ms Indranee Rajah.
Media Contact For more information, or to arrange interviews or photography/filming of our Lunar New Year celebrations please contact: Ms Rachel Kelly Communications DID: 6326 5168 / Mobile: 97338820 Email: Rachel.kelly@singhealth.com.sg
SGH Lunar New Year Celebrations Factsheet Summary of Events: Event Summary Project GroomOver Where: Residents Homes When: 10am Saturday, 7 Feb 2015 Thirty-eight homes of needy and elderly residents staying in Henderson and Bukit Merah will be cleaned up and made safe and elderly-friendly by volunteers from Singapore General Hospital (SGH). This is a significant increase form the 28 homes visited last year. As part of SGH s annual Project GroomOver, a record number of 400 volunteers, comprising of doctors, nurses, allied health and administrative staff, partners and students, will be sprucing up residents homes. Pharmacists will also be on hand to sort out the medicine for most of the residents following the clean-up. To usher in the Lunar New Year, the needy residents will also be presented with Lunar New Year goodies and other useful household items such as pillows/bolsters, mattress, radio, storage boxes, flasks and non-slip mats. A finishing touch in the form of Chinese couplets will be pasted on every of the 38 homes to welcome spring.
The residents, who were identified by SGH s medical social workers and grassroots leaders from Henderson and Kreta Ayer CC, are mainly single and elderly with very little family support. They also tend to have multiple medical conditions with frequent readmissions to the Hospital. Project GroomOver is one of the many community outreach efforts by the SGH Volunteer Club, and has grown since its humble beginnings with 200 volunteers in 2006. Project GroomOver includes volunteers from our partner institutions such as National Heart Centre Singapore, Bright Vision Hospital and Nanyang Polytechnic. NUS Yong Loo Lin student outreach Where: SGH When: 2pm to 4pm Monday, 16 Feb 2015 To usher in the Lunar New Year, more than 30 students from Medical, Dental and Nursing and Pharmacy faculties from NUS will rove the wards to bring cheer to patients who are unable to go home. The students will extend Lunar New Year cheer packs which contain oats and oranges, and perform festive songs at the patients bedside. Students will be on hand to do simple paper cuttings for the patients. Patients will be encouraged to write simple symmetrical Chinese characters. SingHealth Community Programme Where: Kreta Ayer CC When: 7pm to 9pm Monday, 16 Feb 2015 Nurses Outreach Every year, it is a tradition for senior management to host a party for needy elderly residents in the central region. This year, the SingHealth Nurses Volunteer Group will be organising a reunion dinner for over 200 residents living in the Kreta Ayer constituency. Residents will be treated to a lion dance followed by song and dance performances by our nursing groups. The residents will also be given goody bags, ang pow, mandarin oranges and sure-win lucky draw. The event will be hosted by Dr Tracy Carol Ayre, Group Chief Nurse, SingHealth, and she will be accompanied by Prof Ivy Ng, GCEO, SingHealth, Prof Ang Chong Lye, Deputy GCEO, SingHealth, and Prof Fong Kok Yong, Group Director, Medical SingHealth. Project Oranges Where: SGH Wards & Specialist Outpatient Clinics When: 9.30am to 10.30am Every year, it is a tradition for senior management to give mandarin oranges to our patients. This is our small gesture to spread festive cheer and well-wishes to patients who cannot spend the Lunar New year with their loved ones at home. On Wednesday, 18 February, more than 50 management staff
Wednesday, 18 Feb 2015 will be going to all the wards to give Lunar New Year cheer packs to our patients and extend festive greetings to them. Patients in the C-class wards will also be given Lunar New Year hampers with goodies such as cereal drinks, towel, bee hoon, biscuits, rice and fruits. Doctors attending to patients at the Specialist Outpatient Clinics will also be extending cheer packs to patients following their clinic appointments. Soka Association Concert Where: SGH Quad When:7pm Friday, 27 Feb 2015 SGH Arts for Health will be hosting two concerts on Friday, 27 Feb 2015 by the Singapore Soka Association (SSA). The event will include festive performances and dancing. *Open to the public Spring Concert @ SGH Where: SGH Quad When: 7pm Thursday, 5 Mar 2015 *Open to the public Co-organised with Tanglin Cairnhill CCC as part of their outreach programme for SGH patients, the event will be graced by Ms Indranee Rajah, MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC. The event will have traditional dragon and lion dance followed by festive songs performances. About Arts for Health SGH Arts for Health aims to promote good health in SGH by providing holistic, caring environment through the arts. Patients, visitors, staff and the community can participate in creative arts programmes like monthly concerts, workshops, art exhibitions that bring healing to the body, mind and soul. Arts for Health is supported by the National Arts Council