Some Tengah residents lament teething issues in town’s first GP clinic

SINGAPORE - Some Tengah residents have complained about being turned away from the town’s first and only GP clinic as no doctor was present during opening hours.

On some occasions, residents were told by staff at the Minmed clinic in the retail street of Plantation Village Build-To-Order project to teleconsult a general practitioner through the company’s app instead.

One resident, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tee, 36, said he was turned away three times in 2025, and had to visit nearby clinics in Bukit Batok instead – about 10 minutes on foot.

“While the Bukit Batok clinics are not too far away, I hope Minmed’s service could be more reliable as it is the only one in Tengah at the moment,” said Mr Tee, who works in engineering.

Another resident, Mr Nicholas Foo, 39, said he called the clinic in June to make an appointment for when he ended work that evening, but was told that no doctor would be in.

Mr Foo, who works in freight forwarding, added that he walks past the clinic often as he lives nearby, and noticed several instances when it was closed during its stated opening hours.

Several Google reviewers also complained that there were no doctors on site when they visited the clinic.

The Minmed clinic opened in August 2024, after winning a Housing Board tender for the unit at $35,999 in monthly rent.

The first batch of Tengah residents began collecting the keys to their flats at the end of August 2023. In July 2025, National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat said that

nearly 12,000 HDB units had been completed in Tengah.

At present, the clinic is open from 9am to 9pm on weekdays, with one-hour breaks during lunch and dinner. It is open from 9am to 1pm on weekends.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, Minmed chief executive Eric Chiam said the clinic had faced “teething issues... both infrastructurally and operationally” when it first opened. These had been largely corrected by late 2024, but recurred in May and June 2025, he added.

The clinic is currently adequately staffed, with one resident doctor and regular locums, he said. On Monday mornings, there are two doctors on duty.

“Where appropriate, we will redeploy doctors for continuity of service,” Dr Chiam said. “There can, however, be exigencies of service where a doctor is unable to be present, during which patients may be offered a teleconsult as an option. This is not frequent.”

He said: “We understand the impact this has had on patients, and have put in place further measures to ensure that our patients are looked after.”

He added that Minmed intends to provide 24-hour service in its Tengah clinic when more residents have moved in and “the service becomes beneficial and sustainable”.

Minmed’s dental clinic, located in the same unit, opened on Aug 25. The clinic’s paediatric services operate on Thursday on an appointment basis.

Five other residents ST spoke to said the GP clinic would typically have a queue of between eight and 10 people in the morning, or about an hour’s wait.

Ms Jennifer Wong, 32, said she hopes the clinic extends its opening hours to better handle demand.

“A 24-hour clinic would be better, especially if there are emergencies in the middle of the night,” said the homemaker, who has a daughter aged three.

The second GP clinic in the new town, operated by Pinnacle Family Clinic, is set to open on Sept 8 at Block 235B Tengah Garden Walk.

Tengah Polyclinic

will open in the first half of 2026.