Doctor For A Day is a successful event series by Mount Elizabeth Hospitals, which gives children the opportunity to experience what it is like to be a doctor.

We arrived at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital Main Lobby slightly early for our session and were warmly greeted by a trio of ladies dressed in dark green hospital scrubs and briefed on what to expect during our time here at Doctor For A Day.

We were given bright blue hospital scrubs to wear, and the transformation was immediate!

Instantly, all of us looked right at home in the hospital setting (except that most of us probably had close to zero medical know-how), and the kids looked especially cute all dressed up.

Once everyone had arrived, we were given colour bands to mark our teams and were raring to go! The event took us from Mount Elizabeth Hospital to Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital via a Travel Pod (like a mini-bus).

This year’s Doctor For A Day program was especially exciting because we were to be given team challenges to work in the popular Escape Room format.

Through an immersive experience in the hospital wards with realistic looking situations and challenges to be overcome, the children worked together to find clues and solve puzzles, all for the mission of correctly diagnosing our “patient”, Eric.

We learnt that symptoms must be identified accurately and succinctly in order to give a right diagnosis, and witnessed the importance of speed in virtually every step of the process.

At any minute, the patient can turn into a critical case. For instance, Eric had a sudden spurt of nausea and vomiting midway through our time, and doctors and nurses must react quickly and positively to these changes.

This is not just true for staff who work in the A & E, but for all doctors and nurses on duty in any ward.

The children enjoyed solving the different puzzles, which called on their creativity, powers of observance and use of mathematical skills.

Throughout our times in the ward, a ticking timer and Mission-Impossible-esque music made us acutely aware of how quickly time was running out as we deliberated over every decision or clue. As we were regularly reminded during our challenge, #SpeedSavesLives.

Thankfully, we were able to find all our clues and accurately diagnose and treat Eric, just in the nick of time!

Important Information For Parents

During our time at Doctor For A Day, it was not just fun and games for the teams. We parents also gained helpful information about Mount Elizabeth Hospitals, especially about their A&E Department, which also serves as a 24/hr walk-in clinic.

As a parent, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Mount Elizabeth has paediatricians on-call 24/7 at their A & E.

Doctors at the A&E are able to treat conditions like fever, choking, chest pains, stomach flu, sprains, strains, and so on.

Knowing that they have well-trained medical personnel available at all hours is certainly reassuring news, should I need to bring my child here for urgent treatment in the future.

Best of all, waiting time is typically on average 30 minutes, thanks to their efficient system and experienced staff.

As all the parents and children have learnt at the Doctor For A Day event, speed can make all the difference in saving a person’s life.

To find out more about Mount Elizabeth Hospitals A&E facilities and services, click here.

Text and photos by Dorothea Chow

This post is brought to you by Mount Elizabeth Hospitals.