The Bedok North area will be home to a new hospital — the Eastern General Hospital (EGH) — come 2030, which will give residents in the East easier access to medical services.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung was at the groundbreaking ceremony of the new hospital yesterday (20 April).
There, he shared that some virtual services such as teleconsultations and remote monitoring may even begin as early as 2026.
The new campus, which will consist of both EGH and the Eastern Community Hospital, will have 1,400 beds once works are complete, SingHealth revealed in a press release about the Eastern General Hospital Campus.
The site of the new facility is next to the existing Bedok North MRT station, at the junction of Bedok North Road and Bedok Reservoir Road.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the government first unveiled its plans for the new hospital back in March 2020.
At the groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, Mr Ong said that EGH will boast several unique features that will set it apart from the other general hospitals in Singapore.
Source: SingHealth on Facebook
Firstly, he noted that EGH will be a “pandemic-ready” hospital, with wards that hospital staff can quickly convert into isolation facilities and accommodate for bed surges should the need arise.
Secondly, it will have an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure that allows digital services from the outset. Staff will undergo training to deliver telemedicine services.
The relevant authorities are also taking steps to make teleconsultations “more effective” by looking into the development of a wearable sensor that can remotely track whether a patient has been following routines that their doctors prescribe.
Thirdly, EGH will be the first general hospital that can render its services before the construction of the physical building is complete, thanks to its embrace of telemedicine and digital technology, Mr Ong added.
Addressing the capacity crunch that the nearby Changi General Hospital (CGH) is currently facing due to the rising healthcare needs of residents in the East, Mr Ong explained that EGH will take on some of the load by launching “virtual wards” sometime in 2026.
Source: SingHealth on Facebook
While construction of the physical hospital is still underway, the EGH teams will be based in other SingHealth hospitals, including CGH.
“They can use teleconsult, remote monitoring and move out to the community and into patients’ homes to deliver care,” the Health Minister elaborated.
CGH and EGH will then combine efforts to run their Mobile Inpatient Care-at-Home (MIC@Home) programme, which will “significantly” improve and expand home care for patients in the East.
Source: SingHealth on Facebook
MIC@Home pilot first began in April 2022. It allows patients to have the option to receive medical care in their homes instead of in-patient hospital wards.
Patients with general medicine conditions, such as certain skin infections, can also opt for medical care in a “virtual ward”.
There, they will have round-the-clock access to a team of healthcare professionals via teleconsultations and home visits until the medical team deems the patient fit for discharge.
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Featured image adapted from SingHealth.
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