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JURONG Health Services will fully take over the running of Alexandra Hospital (AH) from tomorrow after a month-long transition.
By September, its nursing team will be wearing new white and red, or grey uniforms, designed for the new Jurong General Hospital (JGH) by former national swimmer Cheryl Chong. A graduate of the London College of Fashion, Ms Chong, 27, placed great importance on comfort and functionality when she was designing the uniforms.
“I had spoken to health-care professionals in Britain and know what they look for in their clothes – mobility, functionality and comfort,” she said.
It took her two weeks to come up with two versions of the uniforms and another two months before her designs became reality.
Ms Chong had originally wanted to use nano-fabric that is resistant to spills, stains and germs, but “it is terribly expensive here in Asia”.
“So I picked a cotton-polyester mix instead, as it is the next best thing. It is also comfortable in the tropics and is not too absorbent so it does not get dirty easily,” she added.
The colour white was chosen by Mr Foo Hee Jug, the chief executive of Jurong Health Services, which runs AH and JGH, as he believes that all nurses’ uniforms “should be white”.
But to help differentiate the senior nurses from junior ones, they were given uniforms in a lighter shade of grey. The new uniforms were unveiled at the hospital’s first Nurses’ Day celebration yesterday and modelled by the nurses themselves. The nurses were later treated to songs and dances by colleagues.
Director of nursing Kuttiammal Sundarasan said the nurses came not only from various local hospitals, but many had come from overseas to join JGH.
“Among the locals, some were seconded from other public hospitals while others put in for a transfer. I am also grateful that National University Hospital (NUH) allowed many of our nurses to ‘nest’ and train at its premises until we are able to move into AH,” she said.
The building of JGH will start later this year and the hospital, slated to have about 700 beds, should open by 2014.
By then, a total of 600 nursing staff will be hired to work there.
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