85-year-old in Bukit Batok care home did not get help after fall due to ‘technical issues’ with alert button

SINGAPORE – An 85-year-old woman living in Singapore’s the first assisted living public housing facility in Bukit Batok pressed an emergency call button after a fall but a “technical issue” meant no help came.

The woman fell and hurt her hip on Sept 2 at about noon, in a flat in Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, Vanguard Healthcare said it carried out a preliminary review with the vendor for the call button, and identified a technical issue that “may have affected the transmission of the alert from that specific call button to Vanguard Healthcare staff”.

Vanguard Healthcare is a wholly owned subsidiary of MOH Holdings that has been appointed to deliver basic services to residents of the facility.

Jason Chan, acting director for community care services at Vanguard Healthcare, said: “As a precautionary measure, we have since conducted checks on the emergency call buttons across Harmony Village.

“We have also reinforced response procedures with our staff, including the appropriate response when a resident is unable to communicate over the call button.”

The woman’s daughter Mary Aw said her mother, Soh Hock Lye, fell in the shower, and pressed the emergency call button in the toilet.

A voice responded to the call, and she believed help was on the way. But nobody showed up to help. Aw said it is likely that an answering machine responded to the call for help.

When the old woman – unclothed and wet from her shower – realised no one was coming, she dragged herself to the main door, said Aw.

She opened the door with the aid of a walking stick and called for help, catching the attention of a neighbour.

The emergency call button is part of a basic service package that residents in community care apartments are required to pay for. The package also includes getting help with day-to-day matters like simple home repairs and letter reading services.

Chan said Vanguard Healthcare staff “rendered aid to the resident promptly” after they were alerted to Soh’s fall by her neighbours. An ambulance was also called.

Aw, 62, said her mother had hip surgery on Sept 3 and has remained in hospital while she recovers.

She said: “I’m really angry that she had to go through all of this, as well as the trauma of having to expose herself and cry for help.”

She added that it was unacceptable for an answering machine to address a distress call, and urged the authorities to review how the emergency call systems in community care apartments work.

Aw said: “How you answer such calls is critical, and all residents need to be assured that the system is working properly. Safety is so important. How can a call be picked up by an answering machine?

“If the call button is outsourced, the authorities need to check that it’s working before the unit is handed over to residents.

“Any faults in the system should be detected and flagged automatically. It should not take an incident like this for us to realise ‘sorry, you are the unlucky one.’”

The authorities should also consider installing lighter doors in community care apartments, so that elderly residents can open them easily, especially in emergencies, she added.

Chan said Vanguard Healthcare recognises that the experience was distressing for Soh and her family.

He said: “We agree that when a resident seeks emergency assistance, the alert system and response processes are expected to work so that residents can get help promptly.

“We take our responsibility for residents’ safety seriously and will continue to strengthen our systems and processes based on the lessons learnt from this incident,” Chan added.