MANILA – Singapore’s KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) will leverage its own experience running a breast milk donation depot with 24-hour access to build up an existing breast milk bank for the city of Taguig in Manila.

It is one of the initiatives in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on Aug 16 between Taguig City and SingHealth Duke- NUS Maternal and Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI), led by KKH.

The agreement, which also involves philanthropic organisation Temasek Foundation, includes infrastructure planning and capacity building in Taguig’s maternal and child health facilities, as well as nutrition research and the development of health programmes tailored to the needs of the city, which has a population of more than 1.2 million.

The MOU was one of two pacts signed that day, with the second being a partnership between Taguig City’s government, private health technology firm CareSpan Asia and Temasek Foundation, which provided a $2.12 million injection of funds.

The pilot programme will see CareSpan providing the city government access to its advanced care platform, which is composed of an electronic medical records system and telemedicine capabilities.

This is expected to benefit 350,000 underserved citizens, and will streamline the filing of Philippine Health Insurance claims for patients in the city, among other things.

Both signings took place on the sidelines of President Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s three-day state visit to the Philippines. They were witnessed by Singapore’s Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung and Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano at the Grand Hyatt Manila.

As part of work on the maternal and child healthcare pact, a team of experts from KKH and MCHRI have joined a symposium on the topic, and assessed local facilities earlier in the week.

Taguig’s human milk bank, established in 2010, is where breastfeeding mothers can donate breast milk to be given to babies in need in Taguig Pateros District Hospital. KKH has its own milk bank, established in 2017, to help new mothers who cannot produce milk for their babies.

MCHRI deputy director Fabian Yap noted that proper nutrition is the foundation of good health, and that “breast milk is the gold standard for infant nutrition”.

“However, not all mothers are able to breastfeed, and not all infants have access to the nutrition that they need to thrive... To address this, we will focus on enhancing (Taguig’s) milk bank ecosystem,” Professor Yap said at the signing ceremony.

“We want to collaborate and lead in nutrition and milk banking – areas that are essential to the health and well-being of both mothers and their children.”

He added that this involves not only collecting and storing human milk, but also exploring the possibility of giving customised donor milk, tailored to the specific age and growth needs of individuals.

To further enhance the milk bank ecosystem, KKH will partner Temasek Foundation to set up a best-in-class freezer locker system that will allow for the safe and efficient storage and distribution of breast milk.

“The system will ensure that donor milk is available when and where it is needed, helping to bridge the gap for infants who would otherwise go without,” said Prof Yap.

While the MCHRI has partnerships with several other overseas institutions, this is its first collaboration with a city.

“We will work with Taguig’s obgyn (obstetrician-gynaecologist) teams and establish streamlined workflows – from the moment the woman discovers she is pregnant, through childbirth and into the postnatal period, she will receive coordinated, continuous care,” he added.

Said Mayor Cayetano at the signing ceremony: “Hopefully, with the success of this programme, we can also inspire other local government units to follow suit and put maternal and child care as a priority... The goal is to have an impact on nation building.”

Replicating such projects was a sentiment echoed by President Tharman later in the day, when he delivered opening remarks before he was briefed on the Taguig City partnerships that were signed earlier.

“I am sure if we can do this very well in Taguig City, we can also scale it up and do it elsewhere,” said Mr Tharman.

On the first day of his visit on Aug 15, the governments of Singapore and the Philippines inked pacts to strengthen cooperation on carbon credits and the development of healthcare workers, as the two countries celebrated the 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Earlier in the day on Aug 16, he met business leaders and government officials. After the briefing, he attended the Singapore Red Cross 75th anniversary exhibition, followed by a National Day reception for around 200 Singaporeans living in the Philippines.