Journey Back into the white-washed wards
Built in the 1930s, the Old Changi Hospital (OCH) situated at Netheravon Road in Changi Village has a long history both as a former military headquarters and as a hospital. Stories of it being haunted began during the Japanese occupation in World War 2 when the Japanese converted the British barracks into a military hospital. The Japanese thus ironically started the life saving hospital’s journey that has lasted for decades until it was vacated in 1997. I have always wanted to explore this 7-storey building with its classical British design that is almost impossible to find in Singapore estates nowadays and with the Singapore Land Authority having allowed the site to be turned into a spa resort, I quickly grabbed the chance to make a thorough visit there before the building vanishes with its dark glamour forever.
Having been abandoned for quite some time, being loosely guarded initially and being situated near Aloha Changi chalets, OCH has received many visitors even after it has lived out its purpose as a hospital. The amount of debris, broken glass and burn marks on the floor as well as numerous graffiti painted on the walls bear trial to the frequent jaunts of ‘Changi chalet-goers’ and other adventurers. While many of these graffiti are crude attempts to make the place seem creepier, others provide an anti-climatic ending to looking warily into the dark and dreary rooms; I had noticed red marks in a particularly dark corner of one of the many wards in the hospital only to find a number for free sex written in red paint upon closer inspection.
Despite the destruction, certain areas still leave traces of OCH’s past. Old posters describing bee and wasp stings, poisonous fishes and other common causes of medical maladies have been left pasted on the walls, remaining surprisingly unharmed in rooms that looked as if they have been ravaged by a hurricane. It is perhaps the sign of a common agreement by all previous explorers to retain certain aspects of the place so as to exemplify its part as a leading hospital in the past. Some of the furniture that proved resilient to any attempt to vandalise the hospital such as built-in cabinets in what is unmistakeably a pantry further made the trip interesting since with the rooms bearing vague resemblance to what they were like when they were in use, one need only use a bit of imagination to visualise the hospital in its former glory.
Despite the sightseeing merits of the place, I was disappointed that I had not found any signs of the supernatural even though I had visited the place both by night and during the day. The only sign of the arcane present was the seemingly genuine proof of satanic cults making use of the buildings for their rites and other unknown practices, since there were certain intricate marks left in various areas of the hospital such as a circle drawn in explicit detail on the floor of a room with bewilderingly thick walls. Despite the rumours and reports of ghosts or spirits sightings, I regret to say I did not have the chance to experience any personal interaction with beings of the netherworld or indeed gather any proof of their existence.
Haunted or not, with the hospital slated to be torn down for the site to be used as a spa resort in the very near future and the guards who supposedly stop people from entering mysteriously absent, it is a good opportunity to check out OCH and look past the desolation to glance into its rich heritage as a hospital that witnessed the horrors of World War 2 in its early days and explore the inner workings of a hospital, albeit a terribly defaced one.
