SINGAPORE - Nursing homes here are expanding, with at least eight new facilities to be added in the next five years, to meet the needs of a rapidly ageing population.

One in four Singapore citizens is expected to be at least 65 years old by 2030 and with a number of seniors expected to enter nursing homes, nearly 1,000 new beds will be available by the end of 2024 alone, with two major operators opening facilities next year.

St Andrew’s Mission Hospital will open two new nursing homes in 2024 – a 342-bed facility in Aljunied Walk, and one with 277 beds in Tampines North co-located with St Andrew’s Senior Care (Tampines North).

Ren Ci will open its third nursing home in the upcoming Woodlands Health Campus in the first quarter of 2024. The 332-bed nursing home will be co-located with a senior care centre to offer rehabilitative care, and will also have staff to provide home care in the north region.

Singapore plans to add more than 2,000 such beds in the next five years, and nursing home operators are also thinking of new ways to keep their residents engaged – with activities such as arcade basketball and sensory gardens, or simple tasks such as cooking rice and delivering bread to fellow residents.

Other homes to be built include:

• A 270-bed nursing home by charity Thye Hua Kwan, to open in Tanjong Katong Road in early 2025.
• A new 200-bed nursing home in Punggol to be run by St Luke’s ElderCare, as well as six eldercare centres in Bukit Batok Central, Teck Whye Vista, Senja, Northshore, Anchorvale and Fernvale by 2025.
• A 302-bed nursing home in Yishun Avenue 6 run by Sree Narayana Mission by 2026. The charity will be running a third senior care centre at Bedok Reservoir Road in August, which will serve about 300 seniors.
• A 298-bed nursing home to be run by private nursing home operator Orange Valley and co-located with an active ageing centre in Bidadari in 2026.
• New nursing homes by private operator The Lentor Residence will open in MacPherson in August, and in West Coast in the next two months.

In addition, new polyclinics built in the same location as public nursing homes will be completed in Kaki Bukit by 2026, and in Jurong by 2027.

A polyclinic will open in the new Bidadari estate by 2030 and will also be co-located with a new nursing home.

The capital cost of building most new nursing homes is borne by the Ministry of Health (MOH), which then tenders out their operation to voluntary welfare organisations or private operators.

As at 2020, Singapore had about 16,200 nursing home beds. Plans are to nearly double the number to more than 31,000 over the next decade, and to grow the current 119 eldercare centres to 220 by 2025.

According to MOH, the median waiting time for a nursing home bed has remained stable at around one month. Nursing home placements are prioritised for seniors who require help in three or more activities of daily living such as feeding and toileting, and have weak family support.

There are other options for seniors in need of care – such as home care – as well as respite care for caregivers to have temporary relief from taking care of seniors. Some nursing homes are seeing higher demand for these services.

NTUC Health, which is Singapore’s largest nursing home operator, said it has seen a 10 per cent increase in the number of seniors in day care in the last two years.

To meet the demand for respite care, NTUC Health has extended day care services beyond weekdays to Sundays, where domestic helpers may have their day off. It also has drop-in programmes for seniors with dementia, and virtual programmes seniors can join from home.

For mobile seniors in the community, active ageing programmes are being introduced at senior care centres, alongside day care services and rehabilitation for seniors with ailments like dementia. In July, St Andrew’s Mission Hospital opened one such senior care centre in Bedok South and will open another in Bedok North in September.

Ren Ci is turning the senior care centre at its nursing home in Bukit Batok into an active ageing centre. It wants seniors living in the neighbourhood to use the place for activities such as group exercises, table games, singing and cooking.

This is how the charity intends to help seniors form social circles and stay meaningfully engaged, said Mr Lim Kong Beng, executive director of Ren Ci @ Bukit Batok St 52 Nursing Home.

St Luke’s ElderCare will likewise be upgrading nine senior care centres into active ageing centres in the coming months, which will provide active ageing activities, befriending and health screenings. Orange Valley will open an active ageing centre at Alkaff Crescent in Bidadari at the end of 2023.

Gamification is also coming to eldercare. When seniors at the Ren Ci day care centre in Ang Mo Kio complete their daily physiotherapy exercises, they accumulate shopping tokens that can be exchanged for grocery items like biscuits and green tea at a little minimart in the centre.

Dubbed “retail therapy”, this shopping experience aims to motivate seniors to be more active participants in rehabilitation activities designed to improve their mobility. Many would have found it difficult, due to mobility issues, for example, to go to a store.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated for accuracy. St Luke’s ElderCare has also clarified that one of the eldercare centres will be located in Senja, not Sumang as previously stated.