National Skin Centre moves to new building to cater to rising demand, wait time down slightly

SINGAPORE – Median wait times for appointments at the National Skin Centre (NSC) have shortened slightly in the past few months after it started moving progressively into a new building.

Median waiting times are now under 50 days, down from the under 60 days previously.

The expanded NSC, which is more than double the size of its former building, was officially opened on Wednesday.

The centre is projected to accommodate a 30 per cent rise in annual attendance by 2030 and a 50 per cent rise by 2040 as the population here ages rapidly, NSC said.

It saw outpatient attendance of about 280,000 in 2022.

Professor Tan Suat Hoon, director of NSC, said at the opening ceremony: “The incidence of chronic skin diseases would inevitably rise in tandem with our rapidly ageing population.

“Elderly patients are also more likely to experience co-morbidities and require complex care.”

For instance, Singapore’s higher life expectancy will lead to increased cumulative lifetime sun exposure, thus resulting in an upward trend of skin cancers among those of advanced age, she said.

“Over the last few months, we’ve seen a drop in the waiting time (for an appointment), a small drop to below 50 days, but this needs to be monitored as we see how the operations stabilise,” Prof Tan said.

She added that teleconsultations may be a way for NSC to handle the workload going forward, though most patients prefer in-person consultations.

NSC handled 555 teleconsultation cases in 2022, compared with 698 in 2021 and 302 in 2020. 

The new 10-storey NSC building in Mandalay Road has been operational since June 2023.

It has 69 consultation rooms spread over an expanded floor area of 25,300 sq m, compared with 40 in the adjacent former premises.

Expanded day treatment facilities and new skin research clinics are also housed in the new building.

It now has an expanded phototherapy service, with a new ultraviolet A1 (UVA1) whole-body phototherapy cabin that reduces treatment time for patients suffering from conditions such as severe eczema; an autoimmune disease that causes thickening of the skin known as scleroderma; and mycosis fungoides, a type of skin lymphoma.

Previously, patients with these conditions might have had to take a pill to make them more sensitive to UV rays before undergoing another type of whole-body phototherapy, Dr Eugene Tan, the head of NSC’s phototherapy service, told The Straits Times.

The old NSC building had only localised UVA1 treatment, which can be time-consuming when patients need to treat several areas of their body.

The phototherapy service sees between 200 and 250 patients a day on average, which is a significant share of the 1,000 or so patients that NSC sees on average in a day.

NSC now also has a new skin allergy and therapy clinic, where patients can get intravenous medications without having to be referred to a hospital for inpatient treatment. 

With more than 20 sub-specialities available, including for treatment of adult eczema, skin cancer and itchiness, NSC is one of the largest dermatology centres in the world.

It manages about 70 per cent of overall outpatient dermatology attendances among public healthcare institutions here.

Prof Tan said that NSC has increased the capacity of its sub-speciality clinics by about 50 per cent, which would allow its doctors to better address evolving skin health needs and better care for elderly patients.

In Singapore, based on the Global Burden of Disease 2019 findings, skin and subcutaneous diseases were the eighth leading cause of non-fatal disease burden for the years lived in disability.

Apart from ageing, global warming also contributes to a higher prevalence of skin issues as residents are more prone to developing various skin conditions in the hot weather and humid environment here, said Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung in his speech at the opening ceremony. 

Increasing the capacity of NSC is just one of the measures being done to tackle that.

With the Healthier SG preventive care programme, primary care doctors are also expected to play an increasing role in managing common skin conditions, and NSC will continue to train primary care doctors through the graduate diploma in family practice dermatology programme, Mr Ong said. 

There will also be better use of telemedicine between doctors, as well as between doctors and their patients. NSC’s tele-dermatology service Tele-Derm, which it piloted in partnership with National Healthcare Group polyclinics in 2016, helps link polyclinic doctors with dermatologists.

More recently, NSC has extended teleconsultations to more patients, especially those who are elderly, frail and immobile, said Mr Ong.

NSC is also continuing its research efforts, and advocating preventive skin care.