Emergency Medicine Overview

Course details

SGH's Department of Emergency Medicine team of clinicians, registered nurses, and other specially trained staff are available around-the-clock to treat anyone seeking emergency medical care. Each year SGH Department of Emergency Medicine sees more than 135,000 patients in the emergency care setting.

A one-stop Emergency Department for emergencies including resuscitations, critical emergencies and ambulant minor emergencies. Resuscitation and critical emergencies, which include acute coronary artery disease, pneumonia, acute abdomen, bronchial asthma, strokes, toxic ingestions and major trauma of all varieties, are managed in a six-bedded critical care area.

The department also manages all types of ear, nose & throat, eye, dental and orthopaedic emergencies and also a variety of minor emergencies. In addition, the department manages a 24-bedded Emergency Observation Ward which includes a seven-bedded Emergency Cardiac Care Unit (ECCU). Emergency observation protocols have been developed for a variety of common emergencies that benefit from observation care. The department has the only semi-automatic decontamination centre in Singapore.

The Department of Emergency Medicine operates the following:

Accident & Emergency Centre

Eight Professional Care Branches to oversee development of professional doctrines, guidelines and relevant research projects, viz:

• Emergency Cardiac Care Branch
• Emergency Trauma Branch
• Emergency Pre-hospital Care Branch
• Emergency Toxicology Branch
• Disaster Medicine Branch
• Airway Management Branch
• Emergency Observation Branch
• General Emergency Medicine Branch

Five Training Sections to carry out the design, conduct and validation of training in the following, all under the co-ordination of the department's Training Directorate:-

• Undergraduate
• Basic Postgraduate
• Medical Officers
• Advanced Postgraduate
• Nurse & Paramedical

Training Programmes in the following areas:

• Emergency Medicine
• Basic Trauma Life Support
• Cardiac Resuscitation
• Emergency Triage
• Medical and Trauma Resuscitation
• ECG
• Ascultation
• Hazardous Material Life Support
• Decontamination

Advisory Services as follows:

• Maritime Radiomedical Services
• Toxicological Advisory Service
• Cardiac Life Support, Defibrillation and First-aid Training
• Emergency Preparedness