NurseFirst helpline redirected over 800 calls away from emergency departments in nationwide trial

SINGAPORE - During a six-month nationwide trial, the NurseFirst medical triage helpline redirected more than 800 callers with non-life-threatening medical conditions to appropriate care options in the community, such as general practitioners (GPs).

These callers were among around 2,500 people with such conditions who either called NurseFirst directly, or had their calls transferred to it by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

With just under one-third of them redirected appropriately by NurseFirst, emergency departments (EDs) were able to focus their resources on patients requiring urgent medical attention, said the authorities.

The rest of the callers were mostly advised to head to emergency doctors on their own, instead of taking an ambulance, said Dr Nicholas Ng, operations lead for the NurseFirst programme, which is run by Woodlands Hospital.

During the trial from June to November 2025, the helpline received a total of 3,600 non-life-threatening calls, including more than 70 calls that were transferred directly from the SCDF.

Dr Ng said they found that many people were not aware of the resources near them or that GPs are quite well equipped to handle a high number of cases, including simple injuries.

Around 1,100 of the 3,600 calls were not medical in nature – these people had called to inquire about their medical appointments or to check on their loved ones warded in another hospital, for instance, he told ST.

The results of the six-month trial are currently being reviewed, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health told ST in a joint response.

In the meantime, SCDF continues to transfer non-life-threatening 995 calls to NurseFirst, allowing emergency medical resources to be prioritised for life-threatening emergencies, the ministries said. 

The NurseFirst helpline was initially piloted in February 2022 to assist residents in the northern region with non-life-threatening cases, so they can seek suitable care options outside EDs and reduce unnecessary ED visits.

It was expanded in June 2025 to cover callers from across Singapore in the six-month nationwide trial. During this trial, Woodlands Hospital also partnered SCDF, which began transferring non-life-threatening 995 calls to NurseFirst for further triage as demand for emergency medical services calls continues to rise.

In 2024, SCDF received 245,279 emergency medical calls, an average of 672 calls daily and a 57 per cent increase from 2014. 

NurseFirst is manned by two nurses at any one time. Depending on the call volume, additional manpower may be provided to support the initiative, the ministries said.

These nurses sit within Woodlands Hospital’s ED, and are supported by the doctors there. The duration of calls to NurseFirst averages between eight and 12 minutes each, depending on the complexity of the case.

This data does not include emergency cases, which were immediately redirected to the ED or to 995, the ministries said.

The NurseFirst helpline (6262-6262) operates daily, including public holidays, from 8am to 11pm. It is currently available only in English.

Nurse clinician Nur Hidayah Baharudin, the nursing lead for the programme, said many callers sought help for issues such as abdominal pain, high fever or headaches. Many of them did not know where to go to seek help, as it was outside the operating hours of GP clinics, on weekends or on public holidays, she said.

For these callers, NurseFirst sent them an SMS link to information about the GPs in their area.

Of the calls that were redirected from SCDF, some 65 per cent were for back pain, and most of them were advised to proceed to the ED, without the need for 995 ambulance conveyance, said Ms Hidayah. This was because GPs are unable to treat those conditions on site, or further diagnostic investigations are needed.

Also, some of these callers did not live near a 24-hour GP clinic; others might have suffered extreme pain that required more advanced imaging or laboratory tests to ascertain the issue, said Dr Ng.