St Andrew’s Medical Mission is established

St Andrew’s Medical Mission was established on 18 October 1913 by Charlotte E. Ferguson-Davie, a medical doctor and wife of the first Anglican bishop of Singapore, the Right Reverend Charles James Ferguson-Davie. She was a medical missionary in India before arriving in Malaya.^[1] With donations from the St Andrew’s Cathedral, the Singapore Diocesan Association and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and a box of instruments and dressings from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), Charlotte rented a house on Bencoolen Street and started the mission as a dispensary for women and children.^[2] Its services were provided free to those who could not afford them.^[3]

Charlotte observed that Asian women refrained from seeking treatment from male doctors. Thus, in her efforts to reach out to them, her first clinic was entirely staffed by females. Acting as the medical-officer-in-charge, Charlotte rallied two other expatriate doctors, G. E. Bartlett and J. A. Lyall, to join the mission. They were supported by an interpreter, a bible woman, as well as European, Chinese and Indian nurses.^[4]

Four months after the first dispensary opened, a second was started on Upper Cross Street in 1914, which served the most destitute of Chinese women and children in the area. The clinic was so popular that patients brought their own beds in order to receive care in the nights. A third clinic was established in Pasir Panjang in 1915 to serve the Malay population, but closed in 1919.^[5] In 1916, the mission pioneered the training of local women in general nursing and midwifery, which developed into a structured three-year course in 1922.^[6]

Due to high patient volume, the mission built a three-storey hospital on Erskine Road – the St Andrew’s Mission Hospital (SAMH) – which opened in May 1923. Funds for its construction came from philanthropists like Tan Teck Neo, wife of property tycoon Lee Choon Guan, and like-minded bodies such as the SPG and St Andrew’s Cathedral.^[7] The hospital operated on voluntary donations, subscriptions and grants-in-aid from the SPG, as the government’s annual grant of $1,800 was insufficient to meet the hospital’s expenditure.^[8] In 1924, the hospital began to set up specialist clinics. An eye clinic for abandoned blind children and a venereal disease clinic for women were opened that year. In 1933, an ante-natal clinic was established.^[9] The SAMH was incorporated under the St Andrew’s Mission Hospital Ordinance passed by the Legislative Council in 1934.^[10]

References
1. Reid, L., & Thay, W. (2006). A light that shines: The story of St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital (p. 22). Singapore: St Andrew's Mission Hospital. Call no.: RSING 362.11095957 REI.
2. Reid & Thay, 2006, p. 18.
3. St. Andrew’s Medical Mission. (1913, October 3). The Straits Times, p. 8. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
4. St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital. (2013). From flicker to flame: 100 years of St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital (p. 8). Singapore: St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital. Call no.: RSING 362.11095957 SAI.
5. Reid & Thay, 2006, p. 19; Smith, G. K. (1959). Medical report, 1949/58 (pp. 28–32). Singapore: St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital. Call no.: RCLOS 618.92 SAI; Mudeliar, V., Nair, C. R. S., & Norris, R. P. (1979). Development of hospital care and nursing in Singapore (p. 72). Singapore: Ministry of Health. Call no. RSING 610.73095957 MUD.
6. Reid & Thay, 2006, pp. 27, 37; St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital, 2013, p. 17; Smith, 1959, p. 38.
7. Reid & Thay, 2006, p. 28.
8. Reid & Thay, 2006, pp. 29–30.
9. St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital, 2013, p. 18.
10. St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital. (1934, March 31). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), p. 3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Singapore. The Statutes of the Republic of Singapore. (1985 Rev. ed.). Saint Andrew’s Mission Hospital Ordinance (Cap. 376). Retrieved December 28, 2014, from Attorney-General’s Chambers website: http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/