Impact of Singtel Landline Outage on Healthcare Services and Patients and Assistance Rendered

Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the impact of the Singtel landline outage on affected healthcare institutions and services; (b) how many patients experienced delays in accessing medical services due to the disruption, such as appointment booking or emergency assistance; and (c) whether there are any adverse outcomes for patients as a result of the delays and what assistance has been rendered to them.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: The Singtel landline outage lasted about three hours and did not disrupt patient care services in our Public Healthcare Institutions. However, the outage disrupted calls to the three public healthcare clusters’ contact centres, which usually handle appointment-related requests, such as rescheduling, booking, cancellation of appointments.

In total, an estimated 2,300 calls, or 10% to 30% of daily call volumes, were unable to be completed during the outage. Mobile and broadband services were not affected. Patients were able to use alternate channels, such as the Healthhub and Cluster Apps, Livechats and Online Contact Centres and email channels during the outage.