Big step forward in end-of-life care at new centre

At day hospice centre Oasis@Outram, cancer patient Allan Wong, 82, is free to do anything he likes.

Depending on his mood, he can go for a yoga class, learn to make a terrarium, or order a cocktail at the bar. Yesterday, his free-flowing programme included getting a wefie taken with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, a picture he promptly sent to his 78-year-old wife.

Mr Ong was there to officiate at the opening of the first-of-its-kind day hospice centre that offers patients the freedom to choose the activities and services they want, instead of a pre-decided programme.

Oasis@Outram, located at Outram Community Hospital, is HCA Hospice's (HCA) third day hospice. The second, HCA Kang Le Day Hospice, opened officially in late 2014 in Marsiling.

The first was launched in 1995 and became known as HCA Day Hospice @Serangoon, after HCA moved its headquarters to Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital in that area. The HCA centres offer more than 60 per cent of the day hospice capacity in Singapore, said Mr Ong in his speech.

While the awareness of day hospice services remains relatively low, it is growing. Such services started in 1993, with one centre.

The second opened in 1995, and the remaining three sprang up in the past three years, Mr Ong said.

These services play an essential role in end-of life care, an area that the Ministry of Health is prioritising so as to help people maintain quality of life even in their final days and to die well, said Mr Ong.

In particular, the model of care at Oasis@Outram, which focuses on the personal growth of patients on the last leg of their life journey and aims to help reframe the thinking on dying, is one that signals a positive step forward in this area, showing how end-of-life care can be brought into the community in a dignified and meaningful way.

Mr Ong said the centre's co-location with Outram Community Hospital offers a continuum of care for palliative care patients transiting from the hospital to home.

Oasis@Outram's day paediatric hospice services are also unique, though it can take in only three patients a day. The space for paediatric patients comes with a ceiling hoist to transport the children to the jacuzzi for a soak.

For the adults, the activities at the new 900 sq m facility include art and craft, horticulture, manicures and mahjong. These are all free for the terminally ill patients, who are referred there.

While many are seniors, some are young people, like 27-year-old Benjamin Lim, who has a brain tumour. He said he was not used to socialising with so many seniors at the start, and would visit the centre twice a week, but he now visits as often as five days a week.

Oasis@Outram, which opens five days a week with a current staff strength of 15, can take up to 48 palliative patients, though it now serves about 30 a day.

Since Oasis@Outram started operations in July 2021, it has served 173 adult patients and 24 paediatric ones. They stay for an average of 95 days. The centre is funded and conceptualised by Lien Foundation in collaboration with HCA and other experts in the field.

"For the terminally ill, health may appear to be a futile goal," said Mr Lee Poh Wah, the chief executive of Lien Foundation.

"But that is actually when it matters most. Mental, emotional and spiritual health can provide what the body can't. So while it is a hospice day centre, Oasis@Outram is a demonstration project for other eldercare services. Senior day centres and nursing homes should be reimagined as oases - flourishing, life-giving sanctuaries."