Expanding Paediatric and Geriatric Inpatient Care Services at Regional Hospitals

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health whether there are plans to expand the suite of (i) paediatric and (ii) geriatric services offered at regional hospitals, in particular to address limited inpatient care services in such hospitals, to better support the demographic distribution of young and old households in such towns.

Geriatric medicine services are available in all public acute hospitals. It is provided by multidisciplinary teams to ensure holistic care for elderly patients.

The planning of hospital-based paediatric services is guided by clinical considerations and demographic trends, which drive demand. Given birth trends and our demography, the KK Women and Children's Hospital (KKH) and the National University Hospital (NUH), and private hospitals, such as Thomson Medical and Mount Alvernia, are adequate to serve the needs of our population. This also ensures sufficient case volume for paediatric specialists to maintain their expertise and provide treatment with good outcomes, particularly for children with rare or more complex conditions.

In addition, General Practitioners are trained to manage a wide range of common ambulatory medical conditions in children, supported by community-based paediatricians. KKH and NUH have also planned for outpatient satellite paediatric clinic services to be sited in some of our regional hospitals, such as Sengkang General Hospital, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Woodlands Hospital. Ambulatory child development clinics are also available islandwide.