Forum: Have a single healthcare app to simplify things for patients

I recently tried to book a medical appointment, and was reminded of how fragmented Singapore’s healthcare app ecosystem is. Depending on which hospital or polyclinic you visit, you need to use a different app – HealthHub, Health Buddy, NHG Cares or NUHS – each catering to a specific healthcare cluster.

For the average Singaporean, this is unnecessarily complicated. Many of us do not always seek treatment from the same healthcare group. We might visit a SingHealth polyclinic for a flu, a National Healthcare Group hospital for a specialist appointment, and an NUHS facility for another consultation. Each time, we need to remember which app to use, and navigate different interfaces.

This raises a simple question: Why not consolidate all these apps into a single national platform designed for the end user?

The HealthHub app already integrates national health records, so it seems logical to expand its functionality to handle appointment bookings, medication refills and medical reports across all public healthcare institutions.

A unified app would also reduce the burden of maintaining multiple apps.

Having a single, well-designed app would greatly improve user experience, eliminate confusion, and ensure that essential healthcare services are always accessible without the hassle of multiple logins.

As Singapore advances towards a seamless and patient-centric healthcare system, we should apply the same principle to our digital platforms. The current fragmented system benefits institutions more than patients. A single, consolidated healthcare app would be a step forward in making healthcare access truly seamless and user-friendly.

Martin Lee Ming Han