A warehouse is not something that springs to mind when one thinks of Singapore General Hospital (SGH). But hidden underground in the SGH Campus is a 2,000m2 repository that holds over 1,000 essential items that keeps the hospital’s operations running smoothly round the clock.

Imagine running out of bandages, masks, syringes, surgical gloves, or alcohol wipes. SGH has some 2,000 beds, with patients requiring single-use dressings, syringes and other consumables for their care and treatment in a safe and clean environment.“The hospital warehouse currently handles more than 100 orders a day from wards and other parts of the hospital,” said Mr Rosli Boedjang, Assistant Director, ALPS-SGH Non-Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Department, SGH.

Since the materials management department moved to its new premises in SingHealth Tower in August 2020, it has automated many of its processes, including the tedious work of picking items ordered. Doing so has made the filling of orders faster and more accurate. At the same time, said Mr Rosli, this will allow the department to manage up to 250 orders a day in the future as demand for hospital care expands in coming years. “Automation helps us manage small pickable items, which constitute about 70 per cent of our line items. We pick 30,000 line items a month on average,” Mr Rosli stated.

Giving an idea of the time saved, Mr Rosli said that completing three orders in 45–60 minutes now by one person might have taken three people three hours each to fill the same orders — to look for the items, pick them, then pack them for delivery.

The department became a part of ALPS, the national supply chain company supporting the country’s three healthcare clusters. ALPS procures much of the bulk of medical supplies and drugs that public hospitals commonly need, helping them to enjoy economies of scale. These commonly used items are stored in ALPS warehouses, while those that are used specifically by SGH and other hospitals are held by the institutions themselves.

Although the department works fairly regular office hours, orders from the wards can come in at any time via email. Once filled, the orders are put into containers to be carried or hauled by a fleet of automated guided vehicles or manned trolleys through a network of underground tunnels to their destinations at the main hospital complex and national centres on the SGH Campus.

The department serves mainly SGH but is able to supply the other SingHealth institutions both on and off Campus when needed. The department sits alongside the hospital’s other operational facilities — the kitchens that prepare meals for patients, the linen supplies unit that manages medical scrubs and staff uniforms, inpatient gowns, towels and bed linen, and the sterile supplies unit, which processes surgical instruments.