Singapore’s first hospital, Singapore General Hospital, certainly did not look as glamorous as it did when it first started. Forget concrete walls, first-class hospital beds and air conditioning, the hospital started off in 1819 as a wooden shed in the cantonment near Bras Basah Road and Stamford Road. 2 years later, the wooden shed was replaced by buildings to provide medical care to European soldiers, sepoys as well as the locals.
Through the years, the hospital relocated to several sites and underwent several name changes before finally settling at its present location at Outram Road during the 1880s. A third hospital had to be constructed in 1828 as the condition of the existing building was beyond repair. Just two years after its construction, the building known as the Singapore Infirmary was already in an extreme state of decay due to poor workmanship.
Finally, the seventh general hospital, named Singapore General Hospital, was officially opened by Sir Lawrence Nunns Guillemard, then Governor of the Straits Settlements. Since then, it has claimed many firsts within Asia as well as in the world with its state-of-the-art equipment and skilled staff. They include the procedure of forearm attachment to shoulder blade in the world and removing brain tumours and arteriovenous malformations using virtual reality surgery in Asia.
