Polyclinic coming up in Bidadari by 2027

Sited with nursing home, it is among 12 new polyclinics to be launched by 2030

The new integrated development is located near the Alkaff Lakeview Housing Board cluster. PHOTO: ST FILE

The new Bidadari estate will have a polyclinic by 2027, co-located with a nursing home in Upper Aljunied Road.

It is one of 12 new polyclinics that the Government is planning to launch by 2030. With the additions, Singapore will have 32 polyclinics located around the island by then.

Explaining the reason for having the polyclinic and nursing home in the same location, Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary said yesterday that the integrated development will also benefit the patients in Toa Payoh town, "which is a mature estate, and there is an increasing number of seniors with chronic diseases and diseases for the aged".

Co-locating the nursing home with the polyclinic will facilitate synergy between the healthcare facilities through the sharing of services to support seniors and polyclinic patients as their care needs evolve, said the Ministry of Health.

Three other polyclinics that are yet to be opened - in Bukit Panjang and Kaki Bukit, as well as a redeveloped one in Jurong - will also be co-located with nursing homes.

The services provided at the Bidadari polyclinic will include medical treatment for acute conditions, chronic disease management, women and child health services, allied health services, as well as radiological, laboratory and pharmacy services.

The integrated development, which will be operated by National Healthcare Group Polyclinics, will be sited near the Alkaff Lakeview Housing Board cluster. The nearest train stop is Woodleigh station, about 500m away.

Dr Janil, who was speaking to reporters during a visit to Ang Mo Kio Polyclinic yesterday, said the Bidadari polyclinic will also serve the "many new young families" in the estate, which will have about 10,000 HDB flats progressively completed by 2022.

Residents from the first two new HDB projects in Bidadari, including Alkaff Lakeview, started collecting the keys to their flats in July last year.

"We will call the tender (for the new polyclinic) later this year, and get the process going for consultancy and design, and we hope to have it operational by 2027," said Dr Janil, who is also Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information.

He also spoke about the team-based care model that has to be considered together with infection control when building healthcare facilities.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has made us think about how we do infection control, how you might segregate patients, how you do the patient entrance, where they walk, where they sit, where they rest," he said.

"Far more important is the care model, the business as usual... Here in Ang Mo Kio Polyclinic, and subsequently in the Bidadari polyclinic, they'll be using the teamlet care model, where a group of professionals - doctors, nurses and care coordinators - will look after, consistently, the same group of patients over time."

Dr Janil said Covid-19 has affected the construction and development of many facilities, including healthcare ones. "We expect there will be impact, but I think it's a bit early to specify exactly what the impact will be," he said.

In March, the Government said it will open polyclinics in Bukit Panjang, Eunos and Kallang this year, and one in Sembawang next year.

Another six will open by 2026, in Tampines North, Khatib, Serangoon, Kaki Bukit, Tengah and Yew Tee. Another one will open in Bishan by 2030.

  • Polyclinics will conduct fewer Covid-19 tests

    With the number of Covid-19 cases in Singapore on a downtrend and plans in place to have more regional screening centres, polyclinics here will be conducting fewer swab tests to better focus on chronic disease management.

    Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary said that patients who are referred by their general practitioners (GPs) to the polyclinics to have a Covid-19 swab test will now be referred to the regional screening centres instead.

    These patients come under the Swab And Send Home (Sash) programme, where they are swabbed and sent home to wait for their test results.

    The samples are sent to a laboratory, where testing can take up to three working days.

    There are 400 GPs and 20 polyclinics under the Sash programme.

    "We will increase the number of regional screening centres to about 25 to 30 by the end of the year, so that more and more of this work can then be offloaded from the polyclinic," said Dr Janil, who is also Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information.

    The Government has said it will set up more of these centres as well as in-dormitory testing facilities by the end of the year, to scale up routine Covid-19 swab testing for migrant workers.

    Dr Janil said that primary care facilities will always have an important role in looking after those who may have Covid-19, and that those who seek help for "acute respiratory illnesses, particularly, will have a swab and some of those swabs are done on site".

    During a visit yesterday to Ang Mo Kio Polyclinic, Dr Janil thanked healthcare workers.

    He said private practitioners and the healthcare staff at the polyclinics have had to carry on looking after patients with chronic diseases, on top of fighting Covid-19.

    Dr Janil noted: "We have 950 public health preparedness clinics, which, together with 20 polyclinics, have been at the front line for community care against Covid-19."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 20, 2020, with the headline Polyclinic coming up in Bidadari by 2027. Subscribe