New framework also standardises ward layouts

Associate Professor Victor Koh, TGCH’s pro tem chief executive, was asked if the hospital would fully adopt the standardised ward layout, and if it would have only one subsidised ward type.

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He said that as the first project using HFDS, TGCH is “still in the planning and exploration stage and learning how to interpret and apply HFDS to explore the reconfiguration of clinical spaces and ward layouts”.

While a decision on ward types may not have been made for TGCH yet, MOH’s earlier remarks point to a possibility of public hospitals having only three general ward types in future.

During the debate on MOH’s budget in Parliament in 2021, Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Health, said the physical differences between the B2 and C class wards were “no longer so obvious, following infrastructural improvements to raise patient safety and infection control standards”.

He was most likely referring to the number of beds, ventilation by fans and availability of an attached toilet.

He said this when announcing that the subsidies between these two ward classes would be unified to a range of 50 per cent to 80 per cent for Singaporeans.