Pandemic-ready, tech-enabled: New hospital campus with 1,400 beds to open in the east by 2030
SINGAPORE – A new hospital campus will add about 1,400 beds to augment Singapore’s healthcare capacity, bringing services closer to residents in the eastern region by 2030.
Located beside Bedok North MRT station, the campus comprises the Eastern General Hospital (EGH) and the Eastern Community Hospital. Collectively known as the EGH Campus, it will open in around 2029 to 2030 and will be operated by SingHealth.
EGH will provide a comprehensive suite of emergency care as well as inpatient and outpatient clinical specialities.
The Eastern Community Hospital will offer continuing and rehabilitative care services, including specialised programmes for palliative patients and dementia patients, and those with other medical conditions to improve their work ability and facilitate an early return to work.
Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung, who officiated the ground-breaking ceremony in Bedok North on April 20, said the EGH will incorporate new, unique features that differentiate it from other general hospitals.
First, it will be a more pandemic-ready hospital.
“The planning and design process benefited from the Covid-19 experience,” Mr Ong said in his address. “The team has thus designed EGH to have wards that can be quickly converted for isolation use, and to accommodate the need for bed surges.”
Working spaces can also be quickly segregated to support new work arrangements during a pandemic, without major modifications to the building infrastructure.
Second, EGH will have information technology infrastructure that is designed and incorporated from the outset, and its personnel will be trained to deliver telemedicine more effectively.
For example, during teleconsultation, doctors can ask if patients are keeping up with their exercises, but are not able to verify what the patients say. The EGH team is working on developing wearable sensors that could remotely track the frequency and accuracy of the prescribed exercises.
Third, EGH will be the first general hospital in Singapore that can deliver its services before the completion of the physical hospital, with the help of telemedicine and digital technology.
The hospital intends to start operating virtual wards around 2026, with teleconsultation and remote monitoring of patients at home. As its premises will not be ready by then, it will be nested in other SingHealth hospitals, such as Changi General Hospital (CGH).
Mr Ong said CGH is facing a challenging capacity crunch and shouldering the rising healthcare needs of residents in the eastern region. It is increasing its emergency department’s capacity and bed capacity over the next few years.
To support CGH, the Ministry of Health is building a 200-bed transitional care facility – the sixth in Singapore – in Upper Changi Road North. The facility is expected to be completed in January 2025.
The Eastern Community Hospital will be part of Singapore’s cluster of community hospitals. It will tap SingHealth Community Hospitals’ (SCH) network to form key partnerships with healthcare and community partners that will benefit residents in the east.
This will ensure seamless care transition for patients from hospital to home, using a programme that connects patients to social and health-promoting community assets to support their well-being, said Associate Professor Gan Wee Hoe, chief executive of SCH, which will oversee the operations for ECH.
Professor Lee Chien Earn, chairman of the EGH hospital planning committee, said the new campus will be no new kid on the block in terms of clinical capabilities and healthcare know-how. Its workforce will draw expertise from the hospitals and speciality centres under SingHealth.
“Through this One SingHealth approach, residents and patients will also have access to national speciality services close to their homes when the EGH Campus is ready,” said Prof Lee, who is also deputy group chief executive (regional health system) of SingHealth.
“This is made possible through close collaboration and setting up of onsite services by SingHealth institutions such as the national cancer, dental, heart, neuroscience and eye centres in EGH.”
The new facility will establish itself as a purpose-built “phygital” hospital campus, where physical and digital solutions will be integrated to deliver care, Prof Lee added.
“We will always emphasise the human touch as the mainstay of our work, while we tap digital solutions and smart technologies to complement care delivery. This will enhance convenience for patients, streamline processes and improve treatment outcomes,” he said.
In particular, the EGH Campus team will be part of SingHealth’s Mobile Inpatient Care @ Home model. Homebound patients will have access to a suite of services, including hospital care, specialist services and rehabilitation supported by the hospitals’ clinical teams and community care teams using digital technologies.
These teams will visit the patients at regular intervals to deliver treatment as required. Patients’ clinical parameters can be monitored virtually, and they will have access to 24/7 care hotlines.
Ground broke for the Eastern General Hospital (EGH) Campus this morning. It is next to the Bedok North MRT station. ...
Posted by Ong Ye Kung on Friday, April 19, 2024
The EGH campus team has been reaching out to about 30 community partners, including primary care providers, active ageing centres, grassroots organisations and the Silver Generation Office, to understand the health and social needs of residents in the east.
At the ground-breaking event on April 20, which was attended by 700 participants, Mr Ong toured EGH’s Healthcare Living Laboratory, where new healthcare innovations and mock-ups of the future hospital were showcased. A community day was also held so that residents and others could learn more about the new hospitals and have fun at activity booths.
Madam Cheong Nget Yin, a Bedok Reservoir resident, is looking forward to the hospital campus.
“We have a lot of old people in the estate,” said the 72-year-old retired cleaner. “For now, we visit Changi General Hospital, but this new one will be so much nearer.”
Mr Gary Lim, a 50-year-old resident of Bedok Reservoir who is self-employed, said: “We all age. I hope the new hospital campus will be a one-stop convenient health hub for us.”
Madam Zainab Ahmad, 66, is also happy about having a hospital campus in the area.
The religious teacher from Jalan Damai said her children and sister are living in the area too.
“My whole kampung is here, so this will be a great convenience for us. I hope the new hospitals will be completed soon.”
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