NOTICE PAPER NO. 3442
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 18 FEBRUARY 2025
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Ng Ling Ling
MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC
Question No. 7223
To ask the Minister for Health (a) when will the national digital health app HealthHub extend its current function of appointments management across all three public healthcare clusters to include Healthier SG general practitioner (GP) clinics; and (b) whether the rest of the current functions on HealthHub, such as laboratory report, medical refill, health screening and CHAS balance, can be extended to these GP clinics.
NOTICE PAPER NO. 3451
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 18 FEBRUARY 2025
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Dr Tan Wu Meng
MP for Jurong GRC
Question No. 7249
To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry has studied public feedback requesting for a single fully consolidated public sector app for patients to transact with the public healthcare clusters; and (b) whether there is room for improvement in existing platforms, especially for patients receiving care across multiple healthcare clusters.
NOTICE PAPER NO. 3445
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 19 FEBRUARY 2025
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Ng Ling Ling
MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC
Question No. 7232
To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether there has been any feedback by users of HealthHub on the difficulties in making cross-cluster medical appointments or missing out such appointments in the app; and (b) if so, what is the technical and non-technical reasons for this given that HealthHub’s appointment management feature is linked to all three public healthcare clusters.
Answer
1 Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to answer Questions 1 and 2 in today’s Order Paper? My response will also cover the matters raised in the question by Ms Ng Ling Ling which is scheduled for a subsequent sitting. I would invite Ms Ng to seek clarifications, if need be. If the question has been addressed, it may not be necessary to proceed with the Question for future sittings.
2 HealthHub is our national health app and web portal which allows the public to interact with all three public healthcare clusters. One of its key functions is appointment bookings. Through HealthHub, users can schedule cross-cluster appointments with the public healthcare institutions. This feature is also extended to Healthier SG GP clinics that have opted to participate in the functions of this app. At this stage, we do not think it is appropriate to compel all private GP clinics to come onto the app. They are private clinics, and they operate within a market, albeit one that is heavily regulated.
3 We have not received much feedback on the difficulties in making cross-cluster medical appointments. This may be because the public are also familiar with alternative booking channels, such as the call centres of the institutions.
4 HealthHub also provides a range of other services to patients such as viewing laboratory reports, health screening results, prescription records, and CHAS balances. These functions are also extended to participating GP clinics, except for medication refills which only apply to the public healthcare institutions.
5 From time to time, we will receive suggestions to consolidate the cluster apps under HealthHub. The cluster apps do serve a purpose, in having features customised to their particular facilities and services and these apps also allow clusters to innovate on user-interaction features, helping them to better connect with and address the unique needs of the patients they serve. On the other hand, there are also advantages to having a consolidated HealthHub. This is an issue that we will continue to explore.