SINGAPORE, 12 February 2022 – Woodlands Health marked the topping out of its Campus today at an event officiated by Minister for Health, Mr Ong Ye Kung. The Campus will serve the North-western population and will open progressively from the end of 2023, starting with non-urgent specialist outpatient clinics. The rest of the hospital, including the emergency department and inpatient wards and services, will be progressively opened from May 2024 onwards.
The Woodlands Health Campus was conceptualised and purpose-designed to ensure seamless transition across the various care settings, according to patients’ needs. When it is fully opened, it will have about 1,000 beds in its acute and community hospital which are housed together for better integration of services, along with almost 400 beds in the Long Term Care facility. Provisions are in place to expand to a total of 1,800 beds to meet future needs.
The Campus will also have community spaces and therapeutic landscaping for patients and visitors to enjoy, in addition to the adjacent Woodlands Healing Garden designed by National Parks Board.
“The topping out represents a significant milestone in our Campus development journey. Since the groundbreaking of the Campus in 2017, our team has started laying the groundwork for a progressive model of care to meet changing healthcare needs. We are also connecting with community partners to develop a collaborative care system that extends beyond the hospital and into the community, to bring about better health together with residents,” said Dr Jason Cheah, Chief Executive Officer of Woodlands Health.
Community outreach efforts
While the construction of the Campus is ongoing, the Woodlands Health team has already started to care for the community. Since 2016, the hospital has been engaging residents and serving the community in the North through health talks, outreach programmes and community nurse posts.
In 2020, Woodlands Health launched the GPFirst programme in the North and the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) at Kampung Admiralty in collaboration with Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. In its first year of operations, the UCC at Admiralty has seen more than 7,000 patients, and more than 60% of General Practitioners in the North have joined the GPFirst programme.
Adding on to these initiatives, the NurseFirst helpline was recently launched. Residents can call the helpline, which is manned by nurses trained in emergency triage, for advice on where they can seek treatment for acute but not life-threatening conditions. The NurseFirst helpline, GPFirst programme and Urgent Care Centre are part of Woodlands Health’s efforts to create a holistic system of care and improve the right-siting and accessibility of care within the community.
Beyond this, the team has also been involved in COVID-19 efforts and was involved in setting up and caring for patients at the Community Care Facility at Singapore EXPO and the COVID-19 Treatment Facility at Tampines Nursing Home.
