Palliative care support in nursing homes and the Violet Programme

Dr Angel Lee started her palliative care involvement as a volunteer doctor with Hospice Care Association in 1993. She went on to be trained as a geriatrician in Tan Tock Seng Hospital and to sub-specialise in Palliative Medicine. In 1995, she was the first doctor sent by the Ministry of Health, for specialty training in Palliative Medicine, for which she spent a year in the UK. She was subsequently involved in palliative care training both with the Singapore Hospice Council (SHC) and as a member of the Palliative Medicine Sub-specialty Training Committee. She chaired the Doctors’ Subcommittee of SHC, from 2000 to 2003, laying the groundwork for the Post-graduate Palliative Medicine Course and the SHC journal club / multidisciplinary case conference, both of which still run to this day. As the Chairperson of the Education Committee of SHC she initiated the 1st Biennial Scientific Meeting, the forerunner of today’s Singapore Palliative Care Conference, in 2004. In 2009, she was seconded from Tan Tock Seng Hospital to Dover Park Hospice to be the Medical Director, where she helped to build an integrated palliative care service in central Singapore. She helped to set up the National Advance Care Planning framework locally in 2010 and was the Vice-Chairman of the National Advance Care Planning Steering Committee till 2021. She was involved in drafting the National Strategy for Palliative Care in 2011. She subsequently chaired a Ministry of Health workgroup responsible for the drafting of the National Palliative Care Guidelines. In 2014, she was seconded to St. Andrew’s Community Hospital (SACH) to set up an in-patient Palliative Care Service. She is now the Medical Director of SACH and the Programme Director of SACH’s Violet Programme, which aims to improve end-of-life care for those with non-cancer diagnoses at home and residing in Nursing Homes. 

Dr Shaun Gerald Nathan - World Ageing Festival Speakers

Senior Resident Physician with the Violet Programme @Nursing Home

St Andrew's Community Hospital