Overwhelming response to LKCMedicine’s inaugural community health screening

By Shi Haixiao, Class of 2021, Overall IC

Around 80 LKCMedicine students gathered before dawn over the two-day Pek Kio Health Screening 2018 taking place under tentage beside Pek Kio Market. This event was a joint effort by LKCMedicine, National Healthcare Group (NHG), and Pek Kio Community Centre (CC). While there had been past health screenings at Pek Kio as part of NHG's Commhealth initiative, what made this year's unique was the involvement by students from LKCMedicine who took the initiative in the planning and execution of the event on a larger scale and with a greater range of services.

We were filled with excitement and uncertainty about what was to come: Were we adequately prepared to engage with the residents? Would the participants enjoy their experience? Would the turn-up be good?

It thus came as a pleasant surprise when a long queue formed even before our start time of 8am. The stream of residents coming by did not let up, and by the end of the two-day event, we had far exceeded our initial target of screening 200 residents, with the final number at almost 300.