Public Hospitals Undergoing Construction or Renovations

Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Minister for Health what mechanisms are in place to ensure that public hospitals adopt prudent spending practices when undergoing construction, renovations or refurbishments.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: The Ministry of Health is guided by the objective of ensuring that our public healthcare facilities are functional, patient-friendly, cost-effective and make optimal use of space.

To ensure financial prudence, MOH rigorously reviews and scrutinises the planning parameters for new healthcare facilities. Aside from the appropriate clinical service provisions, these include the level of amenities, space allocation and cost benchmarks across different types of facilities. Public sector infrastructure projects exceeding $500 million in budget are subject to further review by MOF’s Gateway Process, in order to optimise the land, space, and maximise cost-effectiveness of the project.

As with all public sector projects, the procurement of construction services for public healthcare infrastructure is through public tender to ensure that healthcare infrastructure projects are awarded to the tenderers with the most competitive bids, based on price and quality considerations.

To instill financial discipline on the public hospitals in managing and maintaining their infrastructure, the Government requires the healthcare institutions to fund their own general renovation (eg, reorganisation of existing spaces for greater efficiency and patient flow) and refurbishment works (eg, repair of building fixtures due to wear and tear), as well as the replacement of their furniture and equipment.