Singapore medical trio in Cairo to treat children evacuated from Gaza

The paediatricians on team are first foreign docs Egypt has allowed to be deployed to its hospitals

- Samuel Devaraj

In a hospital along the Nile River, a trio of Singapore healthcare professionals will see to and treat Palestinian children affected by the conflict in Gaza.

The team, with their specialised knowledge, includes the first foreign doctors that Egypt has allowed to be deployed to its hospitals.

The two senior paediatricians and a senior nurse manager flew over on request from the Egyptian government and will be aiding those affected by the ongoing conflict - happening some 400km away from the hospital.

From Sept 20 to 22, the three women will conduct specialist consultations and ward rounds with their Egyptian counterparts at the Nasser Institute Hospital located in Cairo.

Their patients will be those who have been evacuated from Gaza for treatment in Egypt.

The team, which was identified based on the needs of the visit, has decades of experience in treating children. An earlier Singapore contingent had in April identified blood and kidney disorders as issues that needed specialised attention.

The most experienced is Professor Yap Hui Kim, head and emeritus consultant of the paediatric nephrology, dialysis and renal transplantation division at the Khoo Teck Puat National University Children’s Medical Institute at the National University Hospital (NUH).

Prof Yap, 71, set up NUH’s renal unit for children in the 1980s.