Singapore Jobs Related News: Mr Chua Song Khim, CEO of NUH: Recipient of the Medal of Commendation

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Mr Chua Song Khim, CEO of NUH: Recipient of the 'Medal of Commendation'
(News Source: rsi.com.sg)

May 12, 2004

This week, we meet one of the recipients of the recent Singapore May Day awards.

63 unionists and management who have made significant contributions to the labour movement in Singapore recently received their May Day awards recently.

They ranged from individuals to organisations all across Singapore.

One of them is Mr Chua Song Khim(CSK), the Chief Executive Officer of the National University Hospital or NUH, who received the “Medal of Commendation”.

A firm advocate of two-way open communication, Mr Chua not only seeks the union’s views and inputs to make further improvements to staff welfare and hospital services, he also tries to promote training and education.

500 staff members have already benefited from a collaboration between the NUH human Resource Development department and the NTUC Skills Development Department, to enrol staff in Critical Enabling Skills Training and computer literacy programmes.

In his tenure as the CEO, he also strongly supported the union’s initiative for a joint union-management project on job re-design.

Mr Chua has also developed a transparent, performance-driven competitive reward system to retain, recognise and reward the best.

Under his leadership, the hospital has gone on to provide coaching, training and counselling in order to develop and enhance the performance of the staff.

Speaking to Mr Chua, I first asked him how he felt being awarded the 'Medal of Commendation’:

CSK: “I am pleasantly surprised to receive the Award and appreciate the NUH Employee Union's nomination. Frankly, I see the Award as a reflection of the excellent partnership between the Hospital Management, the Union and all the staff in NUH. Hence, I received it on behalf of all my dedicated and caring colleagues - doctors, nurses, allied health, support and Administration staff, working in the hospital. The Award is certainly an encouragement to us and will spur us on further towards our goal to be an "Employer of Choice". The Management will continue to work with staff and the Union to focus on staff training and development and create a conducive work environment so that together we can deliver good, appropriate and cost-effective-care to our patients.”

Given the situation that NUH had to go through, what difficult decisions did you make and how did you pull it through?

CSK: “NUH, like many other healthcare institutions today, has to face challenges like patients' increasing healthcare needs and expectations; as well as the concern with rising healthcare costs. As a public healthcare institution, we have a basic responsibility to deliver good and affordable healthcare to Singaporeans, especially those who are financially not so well off. Thus we have to continually look hard and honestly at the way we do things in the hospital and also learn from other outstanding organizations, how we can be more efficient and cost-effective, while striving to improve care and service at the same time. I strongly believe that the hospital cannot do what we need to do without our most important asset - people or human capital. So one of the fundamental task was to find as many opportunities as possible to communicate (and communicate and communicate) our mission and objectives to the staff. The regular dialogue sessions and open communication with the Union and the staff were a great help. But ultimately, it was staff's deep commitment and unwavering effort to make a difference to our patients that enabled us to make some progress towards our objectives. At the same time, NUH is fortunate to have a staff Union whose leadership is committed to staff's interest, constructive and proactive.. Thus the hospital strongly supported the Union's various initiatives like literacy improvement programs for our health attendants/porters to enable them to carry out their work more effectively.”

Whilst staffs were not retrenched at the hospital, I am sure there were challenges for you to meet, such as new needs or even new jobs at the hospital. So, how did you do it, for example, outsourcing?

CSK: “First, let me say that the hospital will only consider outsourcing a service or function if it is not our core competence and some organization out there can do the job more efficiently and cost-effectively than we can. Our first priority is to look after our patients well. Outsourcing certain non-core functions allows us to focus on making care safer, better, faster and cheaper for our patients. At the same time, it is more cost-effective for the hospital as we can leverage on external expertise and the economies of scale in their operations. Any savings can then be passed down to our patients as appropriate. Second, because there is a constant need for a pool of good healthcare workers to help deliver care and service to our patients, I see staff retrenchment as an option of last resort. So when the hospital's internal dispatch service was outsourced last year to achieve greater efficiency, we worked with the service provider to retain the affected staff or porters under the NUH payroll. The primary role of the porters has not changed but they are now a part of a bigger central pool serving different areas, resulting in service efficiency to the hospital and wider work exposure and value add to the affected staff. It was a fairly smooth transition, as the hospital, through the HR Department; work in close consultation with the Union in the best interest of our staff. The benefits from this project include satisfied staff with improved skills, better workflow, greater productivity and cost savings for the hospital.”

There is also a joint union-management project on job re-design. Now, how did that take off, especially given so many talk recently about the roles of Unions in companies and the society at large?

CSK: “The joint union- management project on job redesign was aimed at creating more opportunities for Singaporeans to take on healthcare jobs so as to meet the manpower needs of the industry. It required us to re-look at the job scope and training of various staff groups like our patient care assistants and health attendants and redesign the jobs to facilitate Singaporeans with no healthcare experience and are looking for work to take on these jobs. I believe that in any hospital-staff project, the partnership with the Union is key to its success. In fact, I see the Union as an extension of the hospital's Human Resource department. As such, we hold quarterly sharing sessions with the Union, which is in line with my belief that open communication is the key to building mutual trust and good working relationship. During the session, my finance and human resource directors as well as myself will update the Union on the hospital's initiatives; future plans and unreservedly share information on financial performance and key indicators. We also discuss potential issues that may affect staff and work on solutions in the best interest of our staff.

What inspired you to push ahead with these reforms?

CSK: “I won't call them reforms. But changes to work practices, continued efforts in staff and Union communication and adopting a collaborative spirit between all parties involved in any project are challenging but necessary tasks in today's environment. While these are not easy tasks, I often remind myself that anything that is worth doing is usually tough. I am guided by the fact that as a responsible organisation, we have to make decision or take action that is in the best interest of our patients, staff and the community & service.”

Do you think that this award or even going through this difficult times have made yourself, or even NUH, more prepared for an unknown future?

CSK: “Over the past years, with the deep commitment and invaluable contribution from our staff, we have been able to improve our delivery of care to patients and weather various challenges including helping Singapore fight the SARS outbreak successfully. Building on our strengths and lessons we have learnt from our past and from others, we are certainly more prepared to meet future challenges in the healthcare environment. While the Award is a recognition of the excellent partnership between the hospital, Union and staff, it is more importantly a reminder of our commitment to continue working as a team to make NUH "the best place to give and receive care".”

Now, I’ll be a bit personal, what is your inspiration in life then?

CSK: “To be able to play a part - in any way, to make a difference to people's
life, to help those in need and to leave a place better than when I first
found it!”

Now, what would you say influenced you to be who you are now?

CSK: “Like everyone, our background, family, friends and experiences in life all play a part to influence us. For me, I am thankful for good parents who cared and taught me what’s right, a wonderful and very supportive wife, good friends, opportunities and experiences in life, and most of all my Christian faith. I see life as a journey of learning and always consider myself as still "God's Work In-Progress".”

Last, but not least, having received this award, what are some of your words of encouragement?

CSK: “Not really any word of encouragement but I always believe that "everything (or almost everything) can be done" if we put our minds to it, stay focused and persevere. In addition, teamwork is fundamental - we have to earn trust and also learn to trust, whether it is between management and Union or just between people.”

And that was Mr Chua Song Khim, the Chief Executive Officer of the National University Hospital, who received the Medal of Commendation at the recent May Day Awards presentation in Singapore.

Till next week, I’m Felix Tan ending this edition of The Singapore Scene on Radio Singapore International.