COMMUNITY HOSPITAL IN BEDOK NEW TOWN

The following question stood in the name of Mr Chew Heng Ching -

Mr Chew Heng Ching: To ask the Acting Minister for Health whether a community hospital, like the one to be built in Ang Mo Kio New Town, will be built in Bedok New Town and, if so, when.

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon (Yuhua): Question No. 10, Sir.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the community hospital to be built in Ang Mo Kio is a pilot project to test public acceptance of a new concept of hospital care and management in Singapore.

If the pilot project proves successful, my Ministry's plan is to build a second community hospital as a wing of the new regional hospital to be built in the next decade in the eastern part of Singapore.

Dr S. Vasoo (Bo Wen): When will the community hospital in Ang Mo Kio New Town be set up and what type of services are expected to be provided?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the community hospital, when it is set up in Ang Mo Kio, will offer a wide range of services. The hospital is meant to be a low activity hospital and would cater for patients who are rehabilitating or who are recuperating after a serious operation in the acute hospitals. It will also provide care for the aged sick. It will also provide rehabilitation services. GPs in the area will be able to admit their patients who have illnesses which do not require them to be followed up in the major acute hospitals.