BECOMING A HEALTHIER POPULATION

The Ministry of Health (MOH) will continue to advance our preventive and population health efforts to support Singaporeans across all life stages. This includes strengthening preventive care for specific higher-risk groups​, enhancing services to address health risks for residents residing in the North of Singapore​, and leveraging technology to support our seniors to age well in the community.

Assisted Chronic Disease Explanation using AI to identify high risk individuals for cardiovascular disease risk screening

2.             MOH plans to deploy an artificial intelligence (AI) risk assessment tool developed by Synapxe. The Assisted Chronic Disease Explanation using AI (ACE-AI) tool provides an objective and standardised way for primary care providers to identify individuals who have a high risk of developing diabetes and/or hyperlipidaemia within the next three years. By using individuals’ health status – such as age and medical history – ACE-AI is able to predict their risk of developing diabetes or hyperlipidaemia. Those flagged as high risk by the tool have more than a 75% chance of being diagnosed with diabetes and/or hyperlipidaemia within the next three years.

3.             The tool will be rolled out from early 2027 to primary care providers in both Healthier SG General Practitioner clinics and polyclinic settings. Primary care providers will be able to view their Healthier SG enrolee's risk status on their Electronic Medical Records or Clinic Management System. Enrolees identified by the ACE-AI tool as high-risk will undergo annual cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk screening, stepped up from every three years, which will be subsidised.

4.             By systematically identifying high-risk individuals, we enable earlier detection. Together with good preventive care, this will help to prevent or delay more serious cardiovascular events and potentially reduce long-term healthcare costs. The deployment of ACE-AI marks a shift towards digitally enabled preventive care that ensures targeted and appropriate screenings are made accessible to patients based on their individual risk profiles.

 Improving Health in the North

5.             We have implemented Healthier SG to support residents to take charge of their health. We will now build on this to make it even more convenient for residents to access health services and lead healthier lifestyles within their neighbourhoods.

6.             We will start with Woodlands Town. The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in the North is above the national average. Residents in the North also engage in less physical activity, compared to the national average.

Enhanced Care in the Community      

7.             NHG Health is progressively enhancing 11 Community Health Posts (CHPs) within Active Ageing Centres (AACs) in Woodlands Town to provide residents with more accessible health services. Additionally, CHP services will be extended to An Nur Mosque and Yusof Ishak Mosque in Woodlands by September 2026, to better reach the Malay/Muslim community.

8.             Residents in Woodlands Town can look forward to:

a. Longer operating hours and services for walk-ins: By Q1 2026, 11 enhanced CHPs will open on a weekly basis instead of the current monthly arrangement. The CHPs will also serve walk-in residents, in addition to residents with appointments. 

b. Enhanced services: Key services provided will include:

i. Basic health assessments (e.g. vital signs monitoring, fall-risk assessments).

ii. Health programmes for individuals who are at-risk of or have chronic conditions (e.g. medication review and counselling, nutrition care, health coaching on lifestyle modifications).

iii. Caregiver support (e.g. assessment of caregiver knowledge, skills and stress).

iv. Post-discharge follow-up, care planning and case management.

9.             Residents will be supported by community care teams, comprising community nurses, health coaches, therapists, pharmacists and dieticians. In caring for residents, these community health teams will work closely with General Practitioners (GPs) and hospitals to provide coordinated care.

10.          Woodlands Hospital (WH) will also start to offer specialist-supported care in the community from end-March 2026. The first tranche of services will be for patients with diabetes and asthma, to access specialist-supported outpatient care at enhanced CHPs or through teleconsultation with WH nurses, and post-colonoscopy patients with low-risk results, to review their findings with WH doctors through teleconsultation. NHG Health estimates a reduction of about 500 Specialist Outpatient Care visits annually arising from this first tranche of services.

Making Healthier Living Easier within the Neighbourhood

11.          The Health Promotion Board (HPB) will work with local community partners such as grassroots organisations and AACs to progressively roll out new initiatives to make healthy living easier and more appealing to residents in Woodlands Town, grounded in insights from a study by HPB which found residents are more likely to adopt healthy behaviours when activities are embedded in familiar, accessible, everyday spaces and allow them to integrate healthy living naturally into their daily routine.

12.          HPB will work with community partners to identify additional shared open spaces and public amenities for healthy living activities and programmes. Residents can look forward to more of such activities in familiar locations such as community halls, plazas and malls (e.g. 888 Plaza) in their neighbourhood. For example, by shifting HPB’s exercise sessions to 888 Plaza, twice as many residents will be able to participate in the activities. This will be progressively rolled out from April 2026.

Activating the Community as Local Health Advocates

13.          HPB will support local community stakeholders to become community health advocates who can co-design accessible healthy lifestyle programmes with community partners. HPB will also co-develop a citizen-centric playbook with community partners to guide the design and delivery of healthy living activities – providing step-by-step guidance for them to plan healthy lifestyle strategies covering physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and mental well-being. This will allow them to implement programmes within different neighbourhoods, with the first version of the playbook focusing on physical activity ready by June 2026. Other aspects of healthy living will be incorporated progressively. Complementing this, HPB will roll out a new wayfinding feature on the Healthy 365 app from June 2026 – encouraging residents to explore and make greater use of existing facilities within their neighbourhoods to engage in healthy living activities.

 Enhancing Community Care Delivery Through Technology

14.          We will leverage technology to improve our delivery of community care and support our seniors to age well in the community.

15.          In December 2025, the Silver Generation Office (SGO) under the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) launched digital outreach efforts via the LifeSG phone application, reaching about 3,200 seniors to date, through in-app notifications and text messages. Based on their responses to a questionnaire, seniors will receive personalised recommendations for resources that best meet their individual needs such as befriending services or schemes like the Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE). SGO will also follow up with seniors who have needs and refer them to additional resources if necessary. As seniors become more digitally savvy, SGO will continue to review how it can better support seniors through digital channels. AIC has also recently refreshed its website with a Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) feature that helps seniors find ageing and caregiving information more easily.

16.          From 1 April 2026, all eligible seniors with care needs can start enrolling in the enhanced Home Personal Care (HPC+) service. The service supports frail seniors to age well in their own home and offers 24/7 technology-enabled monitoring for falls and incidents, alongside assistance with Activities of Daily Living such as housekeeping and showering[1]. HPC+ clients and their loved ones can have better peace of mind knowing that care staff will be able to provide more frequent support when needed. More than 5,600 clients are expected to benefit from HPC+ from April 2026 onwards. Seniors interested in the service can obtain a referral from their healthcare providers, approach HPC+ service providers directly or contact AIC.

17.          MOH will continue to support community care providers to adopt new solutions that will make care more convenient and effective for seniors. We also intend to learn from other countries, identify best practices that can be applied to the Singapore context, and integrate technology that works well into community care.

Building Seamless Support Networks Through a Common Digital Platform

18.          To ensure that Singaporeans receive consistent and coordinated care regardless of which care provider they visit, we are facilitating the sharing of essential health information across the care continuum.

19.          The Health Information Act (HIA), enacted in February 2026, will enable the sharing of non-National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) health information to facilitate community-based care.

Rollout of Integrated Community Care Provider Initiative

20.          To help seniors and their caregivers access long-term care services more conveniently, we have introduced the Integrated Community Care Provider (ICCP) Initiative. Across Singapore’s 84 sub-regions, the ICCP network of community care providers will deliver a suite of baseline services – AACs, Senior Care Centres (SCCs), HPC+ and Home Therapy.

21.          In each sub-region, the ICCPs will be a common touchpoint for seniors. The ICCPs will offer seniors with care needs a standardised care assessment that eliminates the need for different assessments to access individual services and develop a holistic community care plan for each senior with care needs. This care plan will align community care partners to the care goals of each senior and ensure that they receive timely care and support as and when their needs evolve.

22.          We will roll this out in stages. From April 2026, seniors who require long-term care services will only need one comprehensive assessment. From October 2026, each senior will also have a single holistic community care plan.

23.          We will continue to build and maintain robust partnerships, to transform how care is coordinated and delivered in the community.

New Chinese name for Ministry of Health to better reflect current mandate and priorities

24.          To better reflect our current mandate and priorities, MOH will update its Chinese name to “保健卫生部” with immediate effect.

25.          “保健” conveys MOH’s current priorities of promoting and maintaining a healthy population, while retaining “卫生” reflects our ongoing work in the areas of infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness.

26.          Historically, health ministries across the world were set up with an emphasis on promoting public hygiene, as this was a major risk factor for infectious diseases. When MOH was established in 1955, the Chinese name “卫生部” was adopted in line with the convention of the day. Some seventy years later, the operating context has changed: Singapore has become a super-aged society, with more complex challenges on public health, such as the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases.

27.          The updated Chinese name “保健卫生部” thus reflects the shift in MOH’s priorities to boost Singaporeans’ health-span, while upholding our continued mandate of ensuring health outcomes and pandemic preparedness.

28.          MOH has and will continue to deepen efforts to meet the challenges of a super-aged society, and to achieve our aspiration towards making our population super-healthy.

[Note: No abbreviation is allowed for media reporting of the Ministry’s new Chinese name.]

[1] The four HPC+ service modules are: (A) Housekeeping, (B) Personal Care, (C) Custodial Support, and (D) Fall and Movement Monitoring and Response.