SINGAPORE – Singapore’s newest integrated acute and community hospital, Woodlands Health, welcomed its first patients on Dec 22 with the opening of its specialist clinics and 40 community hospital beds.

The 7.7ha facility located at 17 Woodlands Drive 17 will fully open the rest of its services, including the emergency department and acute wards, in May 2024.

It will eventually have 1,000 acute and community beds, and almost 400 beds in its long-term care facility, with the capacity to expand to 1,800 beds to meet future needs.

Public hospitals in Singapore have been facing a bed crunch, in part due to the lingering impact of the pandemic. The Ministry of Health (MOH) has set a target to add 1,300 beds by the end of 2023 to alleviate the situation.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, as well as Sembawang GRC MPs Poh Li San and Lim Wee Kiak, and Marsiling-Yew Tee MP Hany Soh, were given a tour of the hospital facilities such as the medical centre, which is now open to patients.

Those with conditions such as asthma and diabetes will be able to access specialist outpatient services at the medical centre. The allied health team can also provide rehabilitation services, including speech therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Woodlands Health is a facility with acute and community hospitals sharing the same building, so patients can be seamlessly moved from acute to step-down care with the same doctors in charge.

“When patients are suitable to be transferred, they would be crossing the corridor to the community hospital wards to continue their care, as opposed to moving into a totally different facility,” Dr Wong Kirk Chuan, the hospital’s chief operating officer, said at an earlier briefing on Dec 21.

A medical centre with specialist clinics, as well as radiology, rehabilitation and pharmacy services, will be linked to the main hospital building via a bridge.

Woodlands Health’s long-term care tower includes the Ren Ci @ Woodlands nursing home and a senior care centre for 100 clients, and offers home care services. The home is designed to be dementia-friendly, with activities and programmes for such residents. The tower also houses a childcare centre, and an intergenerational garden to promote interaction between the young and old.

Woodlands Health is the first public hospital to open with the integration of three national healthcare IT systems for electronic medical records, billing and pharmacy systems.

“The consolidation would help harmonise workflow, data and reporting across the public healthcare sector, improve efficiency, and enhance patient experience by making clinical care more seamless,” said a hospital spokesman.

Linked to Woodlands Health is Singapore’s largest therapeutic garden to date. The 1.5ha Woodlands Healing Garden was designed by the National Parks Board in consultation with the hospital.

The green space is segmented into four zones, and is meant to offer visitors and patients closer interaction with nature for mental, emotional and physical well-being.

Dr Nicholas Chew, chairman of the hospital’s medical board, said it will benefit patients, as hospitals can be stressful environments.

“As we help patients recover on their physical journey, there’s often a need for them to recover on their mental health journey as well… People who can connect with nature do have better mental health outcomes,” he said.

The garden is also open to residents in the vicinity.

Since planning for Woodlands Health began in 2015, the hospital has worked with community care providers in the north region to create an ecosystem of support for 600,000 residents.

For example, it set up 13 community health posts in the north-west region, which are touch points within the neighbourhood that will provide residents with easy access to health services. One of its aims is to make post-hospital recovery and chronic disease management more hassle-free.

Speaking at the Woodlands Health opening ceremony, Mr Ong detailed the results of Singapore’s efforts to expand its healthcare capacity.

He said he is confident that the target of hiring 4,000 nurses for the healthcare sector by end-2023 will be exceeded.

Mr Ong also noted that two new polyclinics – one in Tampines North and another in Sembawang – were opened in 2023. By 2030, there will be more than 30 polyclinics islandwide.

“Hospitals take a longer time to build, but painstakingly, after a lot of hard work, we are seeing the first signs of expanding capacity, and it starts here at Woodlands Health campus,” he said.

Woodlands Health has about 3,000 staff, and while the hospital was being built, they were assigned to other institutions like Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

With the phased opening of Woodlands Health, about 600 staff have been transferred to the hospital, and more will move over batch by batch, said Mr Ong.

He added that 2023 has been a good year for MOH, with the roll-out of initiatives like Healthier SG and efforts to reduce sugar intake in beverages and sodium intake in food.