SINGAPORE - It is not your usual hospital ward. For one thing, there is a courtyard filled with plants. There is also an activity corner, with shelves holding plastic baskets filled with toy fish and vegetables such as broccoli and eggplant. Framed pictures – mostly of trees and plants – line the walls.

In one bed, a woman rests, her bony hands cradling a baby doll clad in powder-blue rompers with the words Little Brother emblazoned across the chest. Around the corner, another woman, with snowy white hair, tells a nurse in a mixture of Mandarin and Hokkien that soya sauce is an essential ingredient for fried rice.