SINGAPORE - Drivers will have to access different parts of the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) Campus through a new network of roads, with three separate routes each leading them to specific areas.
There is currently one interconnected network that loops through the hospital's campus.
For instance, if drivers want to access the current National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) building or SGH Blocks 2, 3 or 4, they should use either Kampong Bahru Road or Jalan Bukit Merah to enter the hospital via College Road.
To get to Academia, the Singapore National Eye Centre, the Diabetes and Metabolism Centre, and Blocks 5, 6 or 7, they should use Outram Road to enter the hospital's campus via College Road.
The changes will take place from Dec 29.
The new road network comes amid the opening of the Outram Community Hospital last Saturday (Dec 7) and the construction of buildings such as the new NCCS, Emergency Medicine Building, as well as the Elective Care Centre and National Dental Centre Singapore.
"While the current network is integrated, it is not sized adequately to cope with the traffic flow," said Mr Kevin Low, chief operating officer of facilities and infrastructure development at SingHealth, at a media briefing on Monday.
"The new road network has straight thoroughfare that will serve the campus with the three routes."
Since Dec 2, commuters taking shuttle buses in the campus have two routes to choose from, compared to one previously.
One of the new routes plies the Diabetes and Metabolism Centre, the Singapore National Eye Centre, SGH Block 3, the NCCS and Outram Park MRT station.
Another route plies Outram Park MRT station, the National Heart Centre Singapore and the Outram Community Hospital.
It previously took about 40 minutes for a bus to complete its journey on the old route, but it now takes about 35 minutes and 20 minutes respectively to complete its journey on the new routes.
As for ambulances and vehicles ferrying patients in need of urgent medical attention, there are no changes to the routes for the Accident and Emergency department.
They will have to use Jalan Bukit Merah to access the Accident and Emergency department via College Road and also via the new Hospital Crescent, which was previously called Hospital Drive.
There will also be more spaces for drivers to park their vehicles, with 1,000 new parking spaces at the Outram Community Hospital and the SingHealth Tower.
After parking their vehicles there, patients and visitors can use a link bridge on level 2 that is connected to the entrance to SGH Block 3.
Meanwhile, a few roads will be closed permanently.
They include a slip road that consists of a stretch of Second Hospital Avenue, in between Central Circus (in front of the NCCS) and SGH Block 8.
Another slip road consisting of a part of Hospital Drive, between Central Circus and Eu Tong Sen Street, will also be closed.
Meanwhile, the current Hospital Drive, which curves around the Accident and Emergency department and the main SGH building, will be renamed Hospital Crescent.
A new road between the National Heart Centre Singapore and the complex consisting of the Outram Community Hospital and SingHealth Tower will be named Hospital Drive.
A junction will also be opened between Eu Tong Sen Street and the new Hospital Drive. It will be connected to Hospital Boulevard, as part of one of the new routes.
In 2016, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong unveiled a master plan for SGH that showed the amount of space devoted to patient care at the Outram campus will triple over the next 20 years.
The plan also showed that the entire SGH will be relocated to be nearer to the two MRT stations along Outram Road and Eu Tong Sen Street, to make it more convenient for patients and their visitors.
