Lunch with Sumiko: Pandemic fighter Kenneth Mak believes in being Mr Approachable ( Sunday Times 2021-12-19)

Lunch with Sumiko: Pandemic fighter Kenneth Mak believes in being Mr Approachable

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/lunch-with-sumiko-pandemic-fighter-kenneth-mak-believes-in-being-mr-approachable

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Associate Professor Kenneth Mak has become such a familiar face to Singaporeans that you feel you know him, even before you have met him.

As the director of medical services (DMS), he has appeared at almost every press conference held by the multi-ministry task force on Covid-19.

That would be about 70 media briefings over the past two years, making him both a household name as well as a recognisable face.

We're meeting in early December and he has chosen to have lunch at Ka-Soh Restaurant in Greenwood Avenue. Three other tables are occupied and I notice some diners looking up when he arrives.

We decide to get his portrait done before more customers come in. The photographer proceeds to direct him on how to pose.

"Don't be stressed, Prof," a man at one of the tables calls out, giving him the thumbs up.

I suspect he's referring not just to how Prof Mak is having his photo taken in front of strangers, but also the burden he carries as the top medical person in charge of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore.

But there isn't much of a stressed-out vibe about the DMS, as he's popularly known.

At press conferences and over lunch, the liver and pancreatic surgeon might look tired, but there's nothing high-strung or excitable about his demeanour.

The 55-year-old comes across as modest and low-key. He has an easy-going manner and a friendly face, although he's probably not the sort to make the first move either.

At work, he has a reputation for being calm, careful, and deliberate in what he says and does. There is a formality in his speech, even in personal conversation.

A Ministry of Health (MOH) information officer is at the restaurant to make sure everything is in order. Prof Mak urges him to take his leave, and lets on that the officer has been working very hard.

Being a doctor was not top of Associate Professor Kenneth Mak's ambitions when he was younger. He thought he could be a science teacher. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

The DMS had given me two options for lunch: Ka-Soh at its Outram branch at the Alumni Medical Centre near MOH where he works, or the outlet at Greenwood Avenue in Bukit Timah.

The former is popular with doctors so I opt for Greenwood as I would rather meet him outside a medical environment. It suits him fine. "It's nicer that you don't see too many familiar faces around," he says. "You don't feel so self-conscious."

We both order the fish noodle soup that the restaurant is famous for. He seems satisfied with just that and says he doesn't eat much for lunch, but I suggest we get a vegetable and a tofu dish as well.

The pandemic broke when Prof Mak, then into his fourth year as deputy DMS, was acting DMS because his boss, Professor Benjamin Ong, was on leave.

Prof Mak was supposed to take over the DMS job in February last year, so he was dropped into the deep end from the start.

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Public eye

In the early days before the multi-ministry task force (MTF) was set up, the MOH held regular briefings for reporters.

More immediately daunting than dealing with an unknown virus were the doorstop interviews he was asked by then Health Minister Gan Kim Yong to conduct.

It was "extremely frightening and very bewildering" to face cameras and reporters and have microphones shoved in his face, he recalls. "If you have never been exposed to that, that's probably the closest encounter you can get to stage fright."

After a reporter told him that the interviews weren't live and he could always do a re-take if he misspoke, he relaxed a little.

"I realised that I didn't need to be frightened of this format. It wasn't an inquisition. People were there to find out more and we are all doing our job and, actually, you could learn to, if not enjoy it, live with it."

When the MTF started holding press conferences at the end of January last year, he was initially seated at the back of the room, and was asked by the co-chairs, Mr Gan and then National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, to answer medical-related questions.

"One day, Minister Wong said, 'You are the director of medical services. You should be sitting with us and giving the input.' So from then on, I was seated in the front."

(From left) Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung at a multi-ministry task force virtual press conference on Covid-19. PHOTO: ST FILE

Being on the same panel as the ministers and facing a sea of media was intimidating. It helped when press conferences became virtual, with reporters dialling in via Zoom. "Looking at images on the screen somehow reduced the stress level," he laughs.

More importantly, having a seat at the press conferences brought home to him the regard accorded to the DMS role by the ministers.

"I'm not a minister but I feel that I'm respected for the views I have," he says. "I'm very grateful for that opportunity, the respect and acknowledgement that the co-chairs have given me."

Public service was not unfamiliar to him growing up.

His father, Mr Francis Mak, an engineer and now 89, was deputy director of the Public Works Department and general manager of Jurong Town Corporation, and was involved in Singapore's early infrastructure works.

"From time to time, I still meet people who worked with my Dad and who state that I resemble him," he says.

"He would probably be the one who inculcated in me a sense of public service. There's a certain amount of role modelling that takes place when a son sees the father working and, to some extent, might aspire to hold the same values."

His mother is a housewife who was a teacher for a short time. He has a younger brother who is in banking and a younger sister who works in global equities.

He grew up in Namly Avenue in Bukit Timah, an area where he still lives, and went to Anglo-Chinese School.

Sounds like a comfortable childhood, I remark. "I'm not abashed to say yes it was," he replies. "But as children, we were never brought up to believe we had any status higher than others. If anything, we were grateful for what we had."

In school, he was "somewhere in the middle" academically. "I wasn't really too fussed about that, of being top. I was comfortable enough to get by. There are a lot more people who were excellent, better than me."

He was a boy scout in primary school and in secondary school, joined the National Police Cadet Corps where he was a sergeant.

For junior college, he picked Hwa Chong because it was within walking distance from his home and also because his parents were worried he would fail his Chinese at A levels. They thought a more Chinese-language environment would help him. "My Chinese did improve."

Becoming a doctor wasn't something he had set his sights on from a young age. But he enjoyed science and maths, and applied to do science and medicine at the National University of Singapore.

"I was mentally prepared to be a teacher since my role models were teachers and I enjoyed science and that would be something I wanted to do."

He was accepted to do medicine, and as did the other men in his class, went to medical school after basic military training in national service. He completed NS after graduation.

More unusually, he continued to serve in the Singapore Armed Forces after NS, doing work including in military logistics. He completed his NS tour as a colonel and his last appointment was as a Chief of Staff in the army's Combat Service Support Command.

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Career-wise, he wanted to do paediatrics at first but ended up getting a position as a surgical trainee. He became a general surgeon and specialised in liver and pancreatic surgery. At the National University Hospital, where he spent 13 years, he was part of the liver transplant programme.

In 2005, he was asked to start a department of surgery at Alexandra Hospital, which was then working to open a new hospital in Yishun which became Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH).

He returned to general surgery and later - "perhaps it was a little bit of a second wind", as he puts it - did trauma surgery.

"Not everyone likes doing this but I found this was a challenge that interested me," he says about dealing with severe injuries.

The work wasn't just about repairing a particular injury but taking a step back to identify the greatest threat to a patient's life, and coming up with a strategy to save him.

"That appealed to me at the intellectual level and I think the decision-making needed honed my clinical acumen without me needing to lay a knife on a patient."

Teaching has always been a passion and he has been involved in trauma training courses.

Besides his practice at KTPH, he started getting involved in administration. He was chairman of the hospital's medical board and, in January 2016, became deputy DMS at MOH.

Staying open

Prof Mak, seen here with ST Executive Editor Sumiko Tan, has become a familiar face to Singaporeans. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

As the top public service doctor, the DMS oversees the delivery of services in public healthcare institutions. Policies and regulations set by MOH also cover the private sector, from GP clinics to private hospitals.

Being DMS wasn't something he had aspired to, Prof Mak says. "I was very comfortable with my clinical practice but I think there were others who felt that I had strengths in administration as well, so it was a natural flow of events."

Dealing with doctors isn't always easy. He acknowledges that "some doctors have big egos" and "sometimes you have to mollycoddle them".

"I'm a doctor myself, I'm not sure whether I've a big ego," he adds with a laugh.

His style is to approach relationships as a meeting of equals.

"I found that in dealing with stakeholders, one of the most important things is to maintain approachability," he says.

For one thing, he prefers to go out and meet people than have them go to him.

"It's very easy for me to pick up the phone and say come over to the ministry and meet me here. And in the beginning, I was just amazed that a lot of people would drop everything and do that, and people can get very agitated and anxious when someone calls them from the top. So I try to resist that," he says.

"Where there are opportunities to meet up with people, I'd rather go to them than have them come to me. And to some extent, it signals a willingness to listen, to be approachable, and to me it's important to signal a respect for the other person."

Having moved between hospitals in his career has also made him more open-minded.

"It's probably fair to say that I've always felt engagement was a better way to get things done compared to being too parochial and defensive of one's 'turf'," he says. "I didn't feel that I necessarily needed to put the interests of one hospital above another."

This approach has been handy in his DMS role where he has to deal with many stakeholders.

What we ate 

Ka-Soh Restaurant, 22 Greenwood Avenue

2 fish noodle soup: $16

1 you mai with dace fish: $14

1 braised tofu: $16

2 coconut: $12

Total (with tax): $68.27

While Covid-19 has kept him extremely busy as DMS, he has not stopped practising at KTPH where he is a senior consultant.

This allows him to understand better the problems faced by healthcare professionals and "not be in an ivory tower in the ministry thinking about policies in a very theoretical sense".

"It also gives you a certain moral authority to talk to people by virtue of the fact you are like them, seeing patients and still engaging in clinical practice, so the policies you make still apply to you."

He points out how he couldn't practise at the height of the pandemic as the rule was doctors shouldn't move between locations. His DMS job is based in Outram and his clinic is in KTPH.

Keeping a practice also gives him the option of returning to surgery after his stint as DMS ends. Recent DMSes have been doctors in public healthcare seconded to the ministry for two- to five-year terms, and some stayed for more than one term.

"You do need to spend sufficient time in the job to be able to make an impact and see through some of the work that you initiate," he says. "From that perspective, it would be good for a DMS to stay in office for at least five to six years."

He has had to work closely with his political masters in Covid-19 and I ask the inevitable question: How different are Mr Gan and Mr Ong Ye Kung, who became Health Minister in May?

Mr Gan was very easy to work with, he says. "People were very familiar with him. It was very easy for him to communicate his intentions, his directions, and easy for him also to understand where we're coming from when we put up papers."

Mr Ong, he says, catches things quickly and has the benefit of seeing the situation afresh. "His was a new set of eyes coming in and seeing things we were missing because we were firefighting down in the trenches."

Mr Ong felt that Covid-19 health protocols were too complicated, even if well-meaning, and pushed the ministry to simplify them.

The past two years have been frenetic and any free time Prof Mak has is spent with his family and going for long walks.

With his wife, a former teacher, he has three daughters aged 23 to 20. The first two are medical students, one in Australia and the other in Singapore, and the youngest is studying speech pathology in Australia.

We've been talking for nearly two hours and he has patiently answered every question. He has barely touched his food.

I've not asked him much about Covid-19, but before he leaves, I squeeze in a question about the Omicron variant.

It appears to be much more transmissible compared with other variants, he says, although there is still no complete certainty whether it is milder than Delta.

But a lower rate of severe infections in a very large group of people still implies a large absolute number of severe cases which can easily overwhelm the hospitals.

"We really need to be on our guard and not be complacent," he reminds me. "Keeping as many of our population vaccinated and boosted, while expanding our capacity to care for more patients, is key."

Spoken as at a press conference.