NKF's new CEO says priorities are accountability, affordable dialysis
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 15 May 2006 2034 hrs
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : The National Kidney Foundation's new chief executive officer has listed her priorities as accountability to donors and making the organisation more cost efficient.
Mrs Eunice Tay took over the running of NKF from interim CEO, Professor Goh Chee Leok, on May 2.
Close to a year since the NKF saga, fund raising has stabilised.
The organisation now collects S$1.5 million a month, compared to S$2.1 million before the incident broke last July.
Most of this comes from the LifeDrops programme, in which about 234,000 people pledge a monthly sum.
The remaining donations come largely from organisations such as Chinese temples.
Staff numbers have also been cut, from about a thousand people to 640.
Most of those retrenched were non-clinical staff.
Looking ahead, NKF's new full-time CEO says the organisation will put its dialysis centres and nurses in the front line, adding that "everything else will exist to support this."
Said Mrs Tay, "I think the biggest challenge is to ensure we are accountable to the donors and affordable to the patients. We also have to ensure that there is good corporate governance. We must be transparent to everyone."
The 57-year-old says she intends to meet each of the over 1,900 kidney patients at the dialysis centres over the next six months. Mrs Tay will be paid S$13,500 a month.
In accordance with NKF's human resource policies, she is also entitled to a one month bonus and a performance bonus of one and a half to two months.
Mrs Tay says her annual income at NKF is similar to what she used to get as chief operating officer of the National Neuroscience Institute.
Said NKF chairman Gerard Ee, "There is going to be some that say, Oh, I will be very happy to do the job for you for S$5,000. At the end of the day, I'm ready to take the criticism. All I'm telling the public is judge us for the results."
Mrs Tay was also in legal practice for a few years, which the board of directors feel would put her in good stead in light of the ongoing lawsuits against former NKF chief TT Durai.
Meantime, NKF, under her charge, will try to expand the way it currently offers dialysis.
It will promote peritoneal dialysis (PD), which allows kidney-failure patients to undergo treatment at home.
This form of dialysis not only offers patients a better quality of life, but is also slightly cheaper.
The NKF will also now concentrate on operations in Singapore, and any dealings outside the country will be based on cost recovery.
Mr Eee says NKF's dialysis centres in the Pacific islands of Samoa and Fiji will be run by locals in those centres.
He added that any NKF dealings not based in Singapore must be done on a cost-recovery basis.
As for the NKF Children's Medical Fund, it will be taken over by another charity, though it was not revealed which one. - CNA /ct
Posted: 15 May 2006 2034 hrs
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : The National Kidney Foundation's new chief executive officer has listed her priorities as accountability to donors and making the organisation more cost efficient. Mrs Eunice Tay took over the running of NKF from interim CEO, Professor Goh Chee Leok, on May 2.
Close to a year since the NKF saga, fund raising has stabilised.
The organisation now collects S$1.5 million a month, compared to S$2.1 million before the incident broke last July.
Most of this comes from the LifeDrops programme, in which about 234,000 people pledge a monthly sum.
The remaining donations come largely from organisations such as Chinese temples.
Staff numbers have also been cut, from about a thousand people to 640.
Most of those retrenched were non-clinical staff.
Looking ahead, NKF's new full-time CEO says the organisation will put its dialysis centres and nurses in the front line, adding that "everything else will exist to support this."
Said Mrs Tay, "I think the biggest challenge is to ensure we are accountable to the donors and affordable to the patients. We also have to ensure that there is good corporate governance. We must be transparent to everyone."
The 57-year-old says she intends to meet each of the over 1,900 kidney patients at the dialysis centres over the next six months. Mrs Tay will be paid S$13,500 a month.
In accordance with NKF's human resource policies, she is also entitled to a one month bonus and a performance bonus of one and a half to two months.
Mrs Tay says her annual income at NKF is similar to what she used to get as chief operating officer of the National Neuroscience Institute.
Said NKF chairman Gerard Ee, "There is going to be some that say, Oh, I will be very happy to do the job for you for S$5,000. At the end of the day, I'm ready to take the criticism. All I'm telling the public is judge us for the results."
Mrs Tay was also in legal practice for a few years, which the board of directors feel would put her in good stead in light of the ongoing lawsuits against former NKF chief TT Durai.
Meantime, NKF, under her charge, will try to expand the way it currently offers dialysis.
It will promote peritoneal dialysis (PD), which allows kidney-failure patients to undergo treatment at home.
This form of dialysis not only offers patients a better quality of life, but is also slightly cheaper.
The NKF will also now concentrate on operations in Singapore, and any dealings outside the country will be based on cost recovery.
Mr Eee says NKF's dialysis centres in the Pacific islands of Samoa and Fiji will be run by locals in those centres.
He added that any NKF dealings not based in Singapore must be done on a cost-recovery basis.
As for the NKF Children's Medical Fund, it will be taken over by another charity, though it was not revealed which one. - CNA /ct
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