Overview

The Singapore Hospice Council (SHC), registered in 1995, is an umbrella body incorporating all organisations actively providing hospice and palliative care in Singapore. Today, it has 8 full members – Assisi Hospice, Bright Vision Hospital, Dover Park Hospice, HCA Hospice Care, Metta Hospice Care, Methodist Hospice Fellowship, Singapore Cancer Society, and St Joseph’s Home and Hospice.

Purposes

SHC is committed to improving the lives of patients with serious life-limiting illnesses and to giving support to the loved ones of these patients. It aims to coordinate and promote hospice and palliative care in Singapore; train doctors, nurses, caregivers and volunteers; and educate the public about hospice and palliative care.


Major Strategies

SHC publishes a quarterly newsletter, HospiceLink every 3 months and organizes Hospice Awareness Week annually. It also deals with government and international agencies on behalf of its members.

SHC’s Education Committee, in association with the Singapore Medical Association, has been organising a 3-day Post-graduate Course in Palliative Medicine every 6 months since July 1997. The course is open to medical officers in government service and other doctors interested in gaining a basic understanding of palliative medicine.

Since April 2002, all medical students at the National University of Singapore’s Medical Faculty participate in a palliative care program run by SHC Doctors’ Education Sub-Committee with the NUS Department of Family Medicine. It includes lectures, small group workshops, tutorials as well as interviews with patients in hospice programs.