SINGAPORE – From July, some 1.5 million residents in the central and north regions can check out hundreds of free health and social care programmes and sign up through a single Web portal, app or a call centre.
The platforms will go live when Singapore’s preventive care strategy Healthier SG launches in the same month.
The National Healthcare Group (NHG), which takes care of residents in the two regions, unveiled a directory of more than 450 programmes – which it calls Health Kampung – at its Population Health Collective annual workplan seminar on Friday at the Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare Innovation.
Estates such as Bishan, Geylang, Yishun and Woodlands are under NHG’s care.
The wide range of activities includes exercise classes such as Zumba, tai chi and KpopX, sessions targeted at seniors such as Chair Zumba and digital literacy workshops, and hobby-related programmes such as gardening and opera singing.
These programmes will be offered by community partners and national agencies, such as Awwa, St Luke’s Eldercare and the Health Promotion Board, which collaborated with NHG. Currently, there is no single web portal, app or call centre for these activities.
More programmes will be added in the future, some of which may come with a small fee.
The Healthier SG strategy aims to shift the centre of gravity in healthcare from acute hospitals to the community.
Those who are at least 60 years old can enrol and work with a general practitioner (GP) of their choice who will take charge of their health to prevent or manage chronic diseases. Those aged 40 to 59 and are already seeing the same GP to manage their chronic illnesses can pre-enrol in the programme.
GPs will work with residents in the programme to develop a personalised health plan that will include lifestyle adjustments, regular health screenings and appropriate vaccinations.
Professor Eugene Fidelis Soh, NHG’s deputy group chief executive officer for integrated care and CEO of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Central Health, said that NHG is building care networks, called Community of Care, in every neighbourhood in the central and north regions to bring together their GPs, community partners and various agencies to develop and organise programmes for residents.
NHG has established 77 of the care networks since they were announced in 2022.
“I think our residents have challenges navigating a very complex health system,” said Prof Soh.
But upon enrolment in Healthier SG, they will have “a GP as a navigator sitting alongside them, and they also have a health plan, so that they are able to track the journey towards their health goals”, Prof Soh told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of the seminar.
As a regional health manager, NHG will help the GPs coordinate some of the work needed to assist residents. Prof Soh said that NHG will hold a session on Saturday to share with GPs the suite of programmes in Health Kampung.
The GPs will be able to recommend certain programmes to their residents, and coordinators in the care networks can then link them up, he added.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who spoke at the seminar’s opening ceremony, said that some 800 GP clinics have joined Healthier SG since recruitment began in mid-March. This is out of 1,200 Community Health Assist Scheme (Chas) clinics here.
He said some teething operational issues are bound to happen, but his ministry will work through them with the GPs.
Mr Ong said that in many countries, it is compulsory for GPs to join government public healthcare schemes. The main role of these GPs is to triage patients and gatekeep the expensive hospital system.
He noted that Healthier SG is not designed for gatekeeping, but to deliver preventive care to residents.
“We also consciously decided that GPs should continue their current business and operating models,” he said.
However, they can decide to join Healthier SG, and earn an additional fee from the Ministry of Health to deliver preventive care to residents enrolled with their clinics.
Apart from NHG, the other two health clusters – Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) and the National University Health System (NUHS) – are also busy preparing for Healthier SG. The work includes engaging GPs and growing the teams of community nurses and coordinators to support residents.
The three clusters function as regional health managers, taking care of some 1.5 million residents each.
Mr Ong said that the clusters have, from this financial year, started to receive their budget based on a capitation formula. MOH will also receive a budget from the Ministry of Finance aligned with the growth of this capitated budget.
“In other words, MOH and health clusters are now in this together. Our budgets will grow in tandem with the number and age bands of residents under our care. But it cannot grow simply because we perform more surgeries and complex treatments,” he said.
“We now have a strong motivation to deliver preventive care and make people healthier and we make sure that our costs do not escalate unsustainably.”
Mr Ong also said that the partnership between MOH and the clusters cannot be defined purely by key performance indicators, reporting structures, processes and protocols. The greater emphasis must be on discipline, empowerment and shared motivation.
“In particular, discipline and empowerment must go hand in hand. To illustrate, the discipline we now place on health clusters, through capitation funding, must come with greater empowerment,” he said.
The minister added that the healthcare clusters will need to have the mandate, flexibility and support to work with other partners, or start new services, in order to deliver preventive care.
