Close to 500 hospital and nursing home beds added to healthcare facilities, with more to come this year
Singapore is on track to meet its target of adding 1,300 beds by the end of the year, says Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.
SINGAPORE: Close to 500 beds have been added to Singapore's healthcare facilities, with the Ministry of Health (MOH) on track to add about 800 more by the end of this year.Â
The approximately 500 beds comprise 30 at acute hospitals, 90 at community hospitals, more than 350 at nursing homes and 20 at Mobile Inpatient Care @ Home.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung gave this update on Monday (Oct 2) at the opening of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital Integrated Care Hub's rehabilitation and recovery wards.
He previously announced that the ministry aims to add 1,300 beds this year to address the bed crunch at hospitals. This capacity is equivalent to one-and-a-half regional hospitals, he noted on Monday.
"We are on track to open the rest of the additional capacity by the end of this year," Mr Ong said.
"This additional capacity requires more manpower, and MOH will continue to closely monitor both the infrastructure development and manpower inflows to ensure that they are increasing in tandem."
Mr Ong said it has been a challenging period for the healthcare community since the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that demand for healthcare will increase with an ageing population.
The Health Ministry said in April that the median waiting time for admission to wards had risen from about five hours to 7.2 hours. The root cause was having more patients with more complex medical needs, the ministry said then, adding that these patients are often older who needed longer hospital stays.
The Tan Tock Seng Hospital Integrated Care Hub (ICH) is part of the 17ha HealthCity Novena development which includes healthcare institutions such as Dover Park Hospice, Ren Ci Hospital, the National Skin Centre, the National Neuroscience Institute and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
The Integrated Care Hub offers various step-down care services such as rehabilitation and palliative care.Â
When fully completed, it will have more than 600 beds, of which 300 rehabilitation beds and 35 palliative care beds will open by the end of this year.Â
"ICH’s services will complement that of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Ren Ci Community Hospital nearby," Mr Ong noted.
"With the range of healthcare facilities within close proximity to each other, we hope to offer patients a seamless transition from acute care to step-down care to rehabilitation care, and then back to home."
Mr Ong highlighted the example of the care hub's Living Resource Studio which aims to help patients safely transit back to the community and their homes.
The studio simulates settings that allow patients to perform simple tasks like cooking or washing laundry.
Major infrastructure projects such as these will add significant capacity to Singapore's healthcare system, Mr Ong said.
He noted projects such as the upcoming Eastern Integrated Health Campus next to Bedok North MRT, as well as the redevelopment of Alexandra Hospital.
"The Woodlands Health Campus, which will provide significant relief for Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, will start to open in phases from the end of this year," Mr Ong added.
"I seek the patience of Singaporeans, as our polyclinics and hospitals become much more crowded than before the pandemic. As our population ages, the demand for healthcare will also increase relentlessly," he said.
"But we are determined to overcome this by expanding capacity in the short and medium term, recruit more manpower to support those additional facilities, and embark on an ambitious plan on preventive care to keep our population healthier."
