Community facilities under one roof in Bedok
Heartbeat@Bedok houses sports centre, library, community club, polyclinic and more
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Heartbeat@Bedok, Singapore's second integrated community hub, was officially opened yesterday. Mr Lee Yi Shyan, an MP for East Coast GRC, said the new building allows for more efficient use of land, adding that he hoped the hub would be a "national innovation laboratory" to pilot new services.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Seow Bei Yi
Singapore's second integrated community hub opened in Bedok yesterday, bringing a sports centre, public library, community club, polyclinic and senior care centre under one roof.
Heartbeat@Bedok, which occupies a site roughly the size of three football fields, also has more than 30 retailers, including eateries.
Noting that residents' lifestyles and needs have changed since Bedok Town was built more than 40 years ago, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, an MP for East Coast GRC, said the new building allows for more efficient use of land, and for the dif-ferent agencies there to provide joint programmes.
"The land freed up by relocating amenities would make room for new housing and new parks," he said, before the building was officially opened by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday. "In a mature town like Bedok, we are hard-pressed to find any open space to build new flats for young families," he added.
About a third of the floor area of Our Tampines Hub, which opened last year, Heartbeat@Bedok houses the ActiveSG East Bedok Sports Centre, Bedok Public Library, Kampong Chai Chee Community Club, Bedok Polyclinic and a senior care centre.
Mr Lee Yi Shyan said he hoped the hub would be a "national innovation laboratory" to pilot new services, such as telemedicine and the pairing of workout data with health statistics to track individuals' rehabilitation progress.
For a start, various agencies there have rolled out an initiative called Heartbeat Cares to reach out to seniors and their families.
Under this initiative, residents may be referred to the Active Health Lab - by Sport Singapore and its healthcare partners - to develop a personalised fitness regime. There are also weekly morning exercise sessions, health screenings, talks and cooking demonstrations.
About 14 per cent of Bedok Town's 290,000 or so residents are aged 65 and above.
Mr Lee Yi Shyan said the aim is for the five agencies in the new building to partner one another for at least 40 per cent of their programmes and initiatives, to better meet the diverse and changing needs of residents.
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From swimming pools to polyclinic self-service kiosks
ACTIVESG EAST BEDOK SPORTS CENTRE
• Four swimming pools with activities such as aqua spinning, which involves using stationary bicycles in a pool, aqua zumba and a pool walk.
• A gym, six sheltered tennis courts and eight badminton courts.
ACTIVE HEALTH LAB
• Residents can take part in a free hour-long programme that teaches them how to manage their health and fitness. They can take a fitness assessment and get a reading of their health parameters such as body fat percentage.
BEDOK POLYCLINIC
• Team-based care lets patients go back to see the same group of doctors and health professionals each time, to foster trust and a stronger relationship.
• Self-service kiosks help to cut waiting time, and a self-collection box is available for patients and caregivers to collect repeat medication.
BEDOK PUBLIC LIBRARY
• The library, which has two floors, has an area that caters to young readers as well as a study area for teens.
• There is a strong collection of Malay language reading materials.
Coordination between agencies is done manually now, but "we are looking into developing an app to automate these processes", he added.
Bedok residents have already started using the new facilities.
Housewife Lily Saeimaim, 47, who has been living in Bedok for eight years, said: "There were exercise facilities in the neighbourhood last time, but everything was farther away from each other and we had to take a bus to move around. It is more convenient now."
"The facilities here also have indoor areas, so we can use them even when it is raining," she added. "I now come here to play badminton thrice a week, and my husband uses the gym weekly."
Engineer Johnson Lim, also 47, finds the library a more inviting place for the young than it was before. "There are more spaces for the children to sit and relax, and the colours are much brighter," said the father of two.
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