Shorter wait times for beds, surgery for patients in the north: NHG Health chief

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital’s bed crunch eased with Woodlands Health’s opening in 2024

- Yap Wei Qiang Correspondent

Not too long ago, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) had cared for patients on trolley beds lined in a three-by-three formation along the corridors of its emergency department.

Some patients had even been discharged from the trolley beds without being warded as it was bursting at the seams, being the only public hospital in the northern part of Singapore when it opened in 2010.

Its bed crunch situation has been resolved since the opening of Woodlands Health (WH) in May 2024.

Some 500 hospital beds — and counting - have been added to KTPH’s close to 800 beds to provide more capacity for the growing residential population in the northern part of Singapore.

“It was very messy, but now it is better... no more trolley beds,” said NHG Health’s group chief executive, Professor Joe Sim.

Speaking to The Sunday Times on Sept 25, his first formal interview as NHG Health’s chief, Prof Sim has made better workload coordination across hospitals one of his key priorities since joining the group in 2024.

NHG Health is one of three public healthcare clusters here. The cluster’s three acute hospitals — KTPH, WH and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) - care for the needs of Singapore’s residential population in the central and northern regions.