Waiting Time for Placement for Subsidised Stay in Nursing Homes

Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Minister for Health what is the current waiting time for placement in a subsidised stay at nursing homes.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: There are over 60 nursing homes in Singapore providing some 9,800 beds today for the elderly with high care needs. The mean waiting time for a subsidised nursing home bed is about four months. Seniors awaiting nursing home placement are prioritised according to their care needs, and those with urgent needs will be allocated a nursing home bed earlier.

We are proactively ramping up our nursing home capacity to address the needs of Singapore's ageing population and aim to reach 15,600 nursing home beds by 2020. In 2013, MOH added almost 1,000 nursing home beds to the system. Another 3,500 nursing home beds will come on-stream by 2016 through the development of new nursing homes as well as the on-site expansion of existing nursing homes.