Old MRT train carriage, bus, taxi used for patients' rehabilitation

An actual first-generation MRT train carriage has found a new home in a community hospital in the east the first time an entire train carriage has been donated to a hospital.

- Esther Loi

The new St Andrew's Community Hospital Bedok launched on Nov 20 also houses an SBS Transit bus and a blue ComfortDelGro taxi.

These donated vehicles, sitting side by side next to the carpark, will be put to good use for patients undergoing physiotherapy and occupational therapy before returning home.

St Andrew's Community Hospital Bedok is the first facility to use an actual train carriage more than 23m long and 3m wide-anda bus for rehabilitation in a hospital setting. A bus and a train cabin in the park at Jurong Community Hospital, which opened in 2016, are mock-ups.

Speaking to The Straits Times on Nov 17 ahead of the official opening of the hospital in Bedok South, Mr Galvin Tan, a senior occupational therapist of 13 years at St Andrew's Community Hospital, said having these vehicles on hospital grounds gives patients a training environment that realistically simulates actual situations in such spaces.