After completing anaesthesia training in 1990, A/Prof Lim underwent Intensive Care training at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Western Australia from 1992 - 1993, under the Health Manpower Development Plan (HDMP) scholarship. This was very much in keeping with his main passion of managing critically ill patients. He was appointed Director, Surgical ICU from 1996 - 2002 and during this time, he realised his vision of attracting and developing a core team of like-minded intensivists to provide high quality ICU care to SICU, NICU & BICU in SGH. He was appointed Head, Department of Anaesthesia & Surgical Intensive Care from 2004 - 2009. During this period, he established and nurtured several sub-specialties that included Cardiac Anaesthesia, Neuroanaesthesia, Pain Management, Liver Transplant Anaesthesia, Pre-operative Evaluation Clinic and Hyperbaric & Diving Medicine and set up the Same Day Admissions Centre in 2010 when he was Chairman, Sub-Division of Anaesthesiology.

A/Prof Lim is active in national and international academic activities. He was President, Society of Intensive Care Medicine (Singapore) from 1999 - 2001 and President, Singapore Society of Anaesthesiology from 2002 - 2003. He was a member of the Specialist Training Committee for both Anaesthesiology (2006-2011) and Intensive Care Medicine (2006-2014).  He is a member of SGH Bioethics Committee since 2001, SGH Transplant Ethics Committee since 2005 and National Organ Transplant Ethics Panel, Ministry of Health since 2009. He has been invited to speak at many regional and international conferences.

A/Prof Lim was appointed Associate Designated Institutional Official (ADIO) of SingHealth Residency Program from 2010-2012 and Designated Institutional Official (DIO) from 2012 to 2018. Residency programs have grown from 6 programs in 2010 to 34 programs in 2016 with the corresponding growth in number of residents from 63 to more than one thousand.

After completing the tour of duty at Graduate Medical Education in 2018, his current main roles are in the following portfolios:
1. Chief Risk Officer SGH: To setup and co-chair the Enterprise Risk Management Council, Safe Management Council and Patient Safety Council.
2. Programme Director, Singapore Chief Resident Programme (SCRP), Healthcare Leadership College of MOH Holdings
3. Director Medical Affairs, SingHealth: To recruit, recognise and retain medical talent in SingHealth.  Chair the SingHealth Junior Doctors Well-Being Committee to engage junior doctors from all SingHealth Institutions and recommend strategies to improve the well-being of junior doctors.
4. Student Progression Committee (SPC) & Member of MD Programme Board, Duke-NUS Medical School: He was appointed Chair of SPC to assist Vice Dean Education to implement school policies regarding individual student’s progression and graduation of MD Programme.

Currently, he sits on the following national and international committees:
1. National Transplant Ethics Panel, MOH
2. Singapore Specialist Training Standards Standing Committee, MOH
3. Member, National Wellness Committee for Junior Doctors, MOH
4. Member, Singapore Medical Council Complaints Committee, SMC
5. International Board Members of USA Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I)

For the recognition of his administration leadership and contributions in Graduate Medical Education, A/Prof Lim was awarded Distinguished Educator Award, SingHealth Excellent Award 2013, National Day Award Public Administration (Bronze) 2015 and MOH National Outstanding Clinician Educator Award 2018.


Presentation Synopsis

Sustainable Safe Sterile Supplies Services
After the National Dental Centre Singapore (NDCS) sterilisation lapse incident (where 72 packs of incompletely sterilised dental instruments were used for dental treatment in June 2017), SingHealth Risk Oversight Committee (ROC) convened the Cross Institution Sterile Processing ERM Review (CISPER). The review identified human errors as the cause of the incident.

Soon after, the SingHealth Sterile Supplies Workgroup (S3W) was formed in 2019 to implement CISPER’s recommendations that aim to build a sustainable safe sterile supplies system. Four taskforces (Dental Sterilised Supplies, Internal Audit, Career Path Development, Endoscope Reprocessing) were convened to support and drive changes which include harmonisation of cross-institution audit and endoscope reprocessing policy and procedures. In the following year, a new Chapter - ‘Sterilised Supplies Professionals under ICAS (Infection Control Association of Singapore)’ was formed.

SingHealth Sterile Supplies Council (S3C) was formed in 2021 as central governance structure for stardardisation of Sterile Supply Unit (SSU) organisation structure. Going forward, SSU will leverage on technology like robotic system that automates sorting, inspection, picking and packing of used surgical instrument and hub & spoke model to improve safety and efficiency. Environment sustainability will be taken into serious consideration for the use of disposable equipment.