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ISS Singapore joins forces with KTPH to care for Covid-19 patients

At the peak of the pandemic in 2020, ISS worked with local hospitals to care for migrant workers infected with Covid-19. Supporting the valiant and extensive efforts at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) was Wayne Fang’s M&E team.

A joint responsibility

When Covid-19 hit Singapore in January 2020, ISS was quick to jump on board and join efforts with our client KTPH, one of the country’s major hospitals. Wayne, Senior Facility Manager at ISS since 2019, led the support efforts, ensuring the daily operations of the hospital’s facilities ran smoothly and efficiently.

Whilst being a relatively new member of the ISS family, Wayne boasts a long track record in the facility management industry – a meaningful career he loves, as it allows him to contribute his valuable services to customers and the community.

“One of our core values at ISS is responsibility,” says Wayne. “We share the responsibility with our client to provide the best healthcare services we can – even during the challenging pandemic period.”

During Covid-19, their responsibilities were vast and ever-growing. As part of a national effort, Wayne and his team helped translate signages from English to Bengali and Tamil. They also guided the Food Services Team to prepare diets, procured telephone call cards, and acted as interpreters for migrant workers.

“

Our priority was to provide the best support we could – for both our client and the hospital’s patients.
Wayne Fang, Senior Facility Manager

Memorably, they extended the A&E department with tentage overnight, increasing the capacity to cater for more than 300 patients. On top of this, the ISS team helped to retrofit all tentages to house and treat a continuous stream of Covid-19 patients. The speed of execution impressed the frontline healthcare practitioners and hospital management team, giving them the much-needed confidence to continue delivering quality care to the patients around the clock.

“Our priority was to provide the best support we could – for both our client and the hospital’s patients. Whenever there was a spike in the number of cases, we were there to help.”

Leadership, teamwork and a positive attitude

Like other ISS facility managers who serve hospital sites, Wayne worked hard to manage his team’s morale. In the early days of the pandemic, he led by example to help his team members overcome their fears, accompanying them as they carried out maintenance in wards for confirmed Covid-19 cases.

Throughout the period, he was supported by the ISS management team including Mr. Park Tuck Weng and Mr. Joe Giani. They paid regular visits to the staff to check on their well-being and held dialogue sessions to help them cope with stress.

The situation in Singapore has since stabilised, and the daily count of new Covid-19 cases is down to low double-digits as of January 2021. But Wayne and his seasoned team are still working hard to maintain a state of constant vigilance. All to guard against a resurgence of cases.

“We hope our efforts have helped open the minds of the public to take Covid-19 precautions seriously. We are in this together as an organisation, community and country. We’ll pull through this together,” he says.

In recognition of ISS's efforts, KTPH nominated ISS for the President’s Volunteerism & Philanthropy Awards 2020 – an award recognising individuals, organisations and leaders that have achieved excellence in giving to the community, bestowed by the President of the Republic of Singapore.

“We really had to overcome ourselves and our fears,” says Wayne. “I’m proud of our team for always working with a positive “can do” and “will do” attitude, while dealing with the many challenges we faced during this period.”

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