Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong acknowledges greetings from residents as he arrives to open a hospital built with Singapore assistance, at Kayin Chaung village in Twante township, on June 11.

SINGAPORE’S Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong arrived in Myanmar on June 8 for a four-day goodwill visit, during which he met Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe in Nay Pyi Taw and attended the opening ceremony for a hospital in Yangon Division.

The hospital, located in Kayin Chaung village in Twante township, had been built in 2005 with funds contributed by 53 villagers, but was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis.

When a medical team from Singapore reached Kayin Chaung during the cyclone relief process, they found that the hospital had been destroyed and recommended that the Singapore government assist in rebuilding the facility.

The 16-bed hospital was rebuilt to include a mortuary, generators, pump house, water tank, tube well and housing for doctors and nurses. The Singapore government spent US$500,000 on construction, furniture and medical equipment with assistance from organisations such as Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), Myanmar Club in Singapore and the Singapore Red Cross.

At the opening ceremony, which was held on June 11, Mr Goh said the hospital would be staffed by two doctors and three nurses from Myanmar who had received four days of special training in Singapore.

“Two doctors and three nurses will work in the hospital with help from seven other general employees,” said Dr Nwe Ni from the Yangon Division Health Department. “Some of them will be trained to use ultrasound and X-ray machines because there are no technicians here.”

Singapore’s ambassador to Myanmar, Mr Robert Chua, said at the ceremony that his government had decided to help rebuild the hospital as part of its Nargis recovery program. The work was done with the approval of the Myanmar government and Kayin Chaung Village Committee, and was facilitated by the Tripartite Core Group.

“Coordinated by the Singapore embassy, the technical work was done by a local contractor, with technical support and quality control from a Singapore-based company,” he said. “For disaster risk reduction, the surrounding wall was designed to act as a flood barrier, so that the hospital compound can be a potential refuge in case of floods.”

He added that the hospital will provide healthcare not only for the 4,475 residents of Kayin Chaung but also for residents of five nearby villages.

U Kyin Hoke, the chairman of the Kayin Chaung Village Committee, said that because the village is located 7 nautical miles to the southwest of Twante, it can be difficult to reach during emergencies.

“We have only water transportation, so that’s why we wanted a township hospital in our village,” he said.

Villager Daw Kinn Kyi, 47, said she was happy about the reopening of the hospital.

“I’ve been hospitalised here since yesterday for rheumatoid arthritis,” she said on the day of the opening ceremony.

“It is very good to be treated in the new hospital because it looks so secure and clean. Before the hospital opened, we only had a small clinic but I rarely went there. Usually I asked the doctor to come to my home when he had time,” she said.

Mr Goh, a former prime minister of Singapore, also travelled to Nay Pyi Taw during his Myanmar visit and met Senior General Than Shwe and Prime Minister Thein Sein on June 9, according to a report on AFP.