Monopolising of Hospital Cleaning Contracts

Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the current total number of cleaning service providers that are contracted by the different hospitals under the Ministry; and (b) how does the Ministry ensure that other cleaning companies have the chance to build their capacity in this sector and prevent the hospital cleaning contracts from being monopolised.

Our three public healthcare clusters – National University Health System (NUHS), National Healthcare Group (NHG) and Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) – are currently served by four different cleaning providers.

All three clusters adopt an open process in selecting cleaning providers. Tenders are open to all cleaning companies, including those that are not currently contracted, and bidders can submit bids for consolidated contracts or sub-components of contracts. This arrangement enables smaller and newer vendors to participate in the tenders.

Submitted tenders are evaluated for both price and quality, so as to ensure that the cleaning providers have the operational capabilities to meet our healthcare institutions' requirements in a cost-effective way.