KOL geriatrician pledges to be the walking cane of patients

Dr Cheng Jen-ngai
Associate Consultant (Medicine and Geriatrics)
Caritas Medical Centre

Dr Cheng Jen-ngai is a keen storyteller. He started publishing books on his medical expertise and work experience soon after becoming a geriatrician in 2013. In recent years, he has also been sharing moments in hospital together with moving and thought-provoking stories on his Facebook fan page. By doing so, Dr Cheng hopes to raise public awareness of the quality of life and care for elderly patients. He is a KOL (Key Opinion Leader) in the field of geriatric medicine, there is no question about that.

“I shared my experience during outreach visits to residential care homes for the elderly on Facebook. The most distressing thing to me is seeing elderly patients with nasogastric tubes inserted, being strapped to their beds and struggling. After sharing these stories, I received many comments and was invited to seminars and conferences on related topics organised by like-minded organisations. And we concluded that restraining patients and inserting feeding tubes is not the only option to prevent the removal of nasogastric tubes by the elderly with dementia. Instead, we could try to understand and tackle their eating problems at source. As a result, I worked with a team of professionals comprising speech therapists and dietitians to explore different methods to improve food intake of the elderly.” In addition, he started a collaborative project with community partners to refer elderly dementia patients to receive regular community cognitive training and support, aiming to delay their functional decline and relieve caregivers’ stress.

“When treating patients, physicians should understand their living situation and even their relationship with family members. Simply put, we should get involved in every aspect of patients’ lives in a caring and genuine presence,” he says. Dr Cheng hopes that he could be like ‘a walking cane for elderly people’, supporting them and walking hand-in-hand throughout their second half of life.