Opening of Woodlands Health has eased load on KTPH, sets standard for future hospitals: Ong Ye Kung

SINGAPORE – The opening of the Woodlands Health (WH) campus has eased the load on the nearby Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) and shortened waiting times for patients, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Aug 2. 

Speaking at an event commemorating one year of the hospital’s official opening, Mr Ong said that for the longest time, the Government was worried about the situation at KTPH in Yishun.

It was the sole public hospital serving most of northern Singapore after it opened in 2010.

He said: “(KTPH’s) accident and emergency is so crowded. Waiting times are long... With the opening of Woodlands Health, the situation has really calmed down.”

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that bed occupancy rates at KTPH have fallen since

WH opened its doors in May 2024. 

In 2024, bed occupancy at KTPH was often at 100 per cent. But it has crossed 80 per cent only once in July 2025. 

Mr Ong, who is also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, added that the care WH provides is prompt and “immaculate”.

The 7.7ha facility – Singapore’s ninth public general hospital – is also a very important piece of health infrastructure on a national level, Mr Ong noted. 

It “bridges” the next phase of development, including the redevelopment of Alexandra Hospital and two more general hospitals in the pipeline in Tengah and Bedok, he said. 

“Woodlands, in many ways, set the standards for hospitals of the future,” he added. 

As infrastructure is built, it needs to be done in a more efficient and standardised way, he said. “Every one will be something special, but harmonise the standards. It allows us to build it a lot more quicker, a lot more efficiently.” 

Woodlands Health opened its medical centre in December 2023, and its acute and emergency care services in May 2024. 

Its total capacity will be 1,000 beds. Another 400 are run by Ren Ci, which operates a nursing home within the campus, WH chief operating officer Wong Kirk Chuan said at a media briefing ahead of the event.

Over 600 of its 1,000 beds are now operational as the hospital ramps up its operations, Dr Wong said. 

On Aug 2, the hospital opened a new Wound and Vascular Centre to help patients with diabetic foot ulcers get treatment earlier. It will also open a colorectal assessment centre later in the year. 

Mr Ong officiated the opening, with several MPs in the north of Singapore, including Ms Hany Soh of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC and Mr Vikram Nair of Sembawang GRC, which Mr Ong anchors, in attendance. 

The clinic’s opening follows promising results from a programme to prevent the loss of limbs from diabetes. 

About 30 per cent of nearly 400 diabetic patients with foot ulcers were at risk of amputation within a year, WH said in a separate press release. Diabetes causes a loss of sensation in the extremities and reduces the body’s ability to heal minor injuries, resulting in amputation if unaddressed.

The hospital has been working to “go as upstream as possible” to prevent this, said the chairman of its medical board, Dr Nicholas Chew. 

It has implemented an NHG Health programme known as the Lower Extremity Amputation Prevention Programme, which brought the risk of amputation down to less than 3 per cent from 30 per cent before. NHG Health runs WH as well as other hospitals and facilities.

This will combine with vascular care, another need for diabetic patients, in the new clinic. 

Dr Chew said: “We will continue to look after our patients with diabetic feet, but then we will extend to venous leg injury, pressure injuries, surgical site infections and other sorts of acute wounds. And then this would help us be able to address the population’s needs much better.”

One such patient is former safety and facilities manager Zulkifli Haron, 55. 

He has a family history of diabetes and was diagnosed with the disease 20 years ago, but did not think much of it until 2024, when complications resulted in him losing three toes and part of a tendon in his heel. 

Mr Zulkifli had persistent blisters on his feet and, due to a loss of sensation caused by his condition, did not notice they were not healing well. 

At the urging of his wife, he went for treatment, first at KTPH and later at WH, but it was too late for three toes on his left foot. He later also had to remove part of the Achilles tendon in his right leg.

Some of these operations were done at WH, which is much more convenient for him to get to from his home in Marsiling than KTPH, he said. 

While he is recovering well and his blood sugar levels are better in control, the amputations have stopped him from being able to work and he has since retired. He is also no longer able to play football or go bowling. 

He said: “Last time, when you say you have got diabetes, (people would say) it is nothing, just diabetes. Now, I would tell people with diabetes, you need to be careful.”