New Sengkang hospitals will boast 1,400 beds

SINGAPORE — The new hospitals at Sengkang are expected to add about 1,400 beds to the national healthcare system and they will be the largest hospital development to date, it was announced this morning (Oct 27). Slated for completion in 2018, the Sengkang General and Community Hospitals are part of the Ministry of Health’s Healthcare 2020 Master Plan to expand the national healthcare capacity. With the community and acute hospital sitting side-by-side, they will provide residents in the north-east region — especially those in Sengkang, Punggol, Hougang and Pasir Ris — with easier access to healthcare services, said the Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Sengkang General and Community Hospitals this morning. “The integrated hospital development will not only serve the young growing population, but also the older communities living nearby, especially those in Hougang and Ang Mo Kio. We can thus expect the healthcare needs in the north-east region to grow significantly over the next 20 years, and the Sengkang hospitals will play an important role in meeting this growing demand,” he said. One of the aims of the new hospitals is to provide patients who require long-term but less intensive care to be transferred seamlessly from the acute to the community hospital. There will be 400 beds in the community hospital and 1000 beds in the general hospital which includes 200 swing-beds that can be moved between both hospitals. Both hospitals will also be new additions to growing number healthcare facilities in the region, such as the new Punggol polyclinic to be completed in 2017.