Ng Teng Fong General Hospital project

8 September 2014

Question No. 215

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Dr David Ong Kim Huat
MP for Jurong GRC

Question:

To ask the Minister for Health (a) what are the main reasons for the delay of the opening of the 700-bed Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFG) by six months; (b) whether the delay will cause a deterioration of the hospital bed crunch situation in Singapore; and (c) whether other hospital projects are on track as planned.

Answer

1.       First, let me assure members that besides Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, the other hospital projects under construction are currently on track.

2.                 The key reason for the delay in the progressive opening of the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital from December 2014 was due to a delay in the completion of the building’s exterior works. Let me explain, the building exterior works or façade comprise the functional elements such as windows, glass panels, air vents and cladding. These functional elements need to be installed so that the building is protected from the wind and the rain to allow internal building works and installation of critical equipment to proceed without the risk of damage by weather.

3.                 MOH and Jurong Health Services, who is overseeing the project, have been monitoring its progress since construction of the hospital started in 2012. Earlier this year, they detected that the progress of the exterior works had fallen behind schedule. The façade subcontractor had experienced problems with production of the  façade components in their factory in Thailand. JHS initiated discussions with the subcontractor to address the problems.  Unfortunately, the curfews imposed in Thailand in June this year did not help.  This has created further distuption \ to the production and installation of the façade.

4.                 To put the construction back on track, Jurong Health Services had worked with the main contractor and façade subcontractor to assess the production status, and made plans for the contractors to re-schedule their production to meet the project timeline. Unfortunately, despite the additional measures taken, the overall construction programme has been delayed and has affected the progress and delivery of the project.

5.                 Since the start of the year, a taskforce led by Associate Professor Benjamin Ong, Director of Medical Services (DMS) has been working with the clusters, to actively manage the demand for and supply of hospital beds nation-wide. To mitigate the impact of the delay, I have asked DMS and his task force to ensure that our bed capacity is sufficient to meet our needs especially during this period of delay.

6.                 several measures have been implemented. Firstly, Jurong Health Services will continue to operate the 330-bedded Alexandra Hospital until the new hospital is ready.  In addition, another 150 beds from NUH and SGH will be added to cope with any surge in acute care demand. The new Changi General Hospital-St Andrew’s Community Hospital Integrated Building will also progressively open from December this year as scheduled.  These measures, along with other on-going capacity related initiatives will add over 400 acute and community hospital beds to the system this year.

7.                 Separately, MOH continues to work with the hospitals to improve the processes of care delivery to facilitate timely discharge of patients to return home or to other appropriate care settings, including community hospitals or nursing homes. For example, the short-stay observation wards at Emergency Departments allow suitable patients to be managed and safely discharged once their condition stabilises, without the need for admission.  We have also put in place programmes to provide support for patients post-discharge, such as the Interim Caregiver Service (ICS), which provides temporary help for patients who are fit to go home but whose discharge may be delayed because their families need time to work out their long-term care giving arrangements. Over 400 patients have benefited from the service since January this year. in addition, some 800 home care places have been added since January this year, and we will also be adding new nursing home capacity in the next few years.

8.                 We have also stepped up  efforts to encourage patients to visit General Practitioners (GPs) for non-emergency conditions, so that emergency departments can focus on those who really need emergency care.  For example, the Eastern Health Alliance (EHA) launched the GPFirst initiative in January this year, where EHA works with GPs in the east to encourage the public to tap on GPs to manage non-emergency cases. Almost 160 GP clinics are now participating in the scheme.

9.                 MOH will actively work to ensure that overall capacity in the national system is adequate to meet our needs.