SPEECH BY MDM RAHAYU MAHZAM, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF DIGITIAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION & MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE WOODLANDS HOSPITAL DIGESTIVE HEALTH CENTRE, 28 SEPTEMBER 2026

Professor Joe Sim, Group Chief Executive Officer, NHG Health

Mr Joe Hau, Chief Executive Officer, Woodlands Hospital

Distinguished guests and partners,

Ladies and Gentlemen

1.             Good morning. What a wonderful way to start Monday morning, to see so many of you here celebrating a milestone in Woodlands Hospital history. I am delighted to join you today for the opening of the Digestive Health Centre at Woodlands Hospital. It is my pleasure to mark this meaningful milestone with all of you.

2.             As Singapore’s newest hospital, Woodlands Hospital was designed to support the future of care delivery: care that is integrated, preventive, digitally enabled and closely connected to the community.

3.             The opening of the Digestive Health Centre marks an important step in this commitment. The Centre brings together comprehensive digestive health services and is supported by multidisciplinary care teams, artificial intelligence-enabled technologies and rehabilitation services. In doing so, patients and their families in the North can be assured of access to high-quality and coordinated digestive health care closer to home.

Bringing Better Care Closer to Residents in the North

4.             The Digestive Health Centre is part of the broader efforts to improve the health of residents in the North, which we embarked on earlier this year, by delivering care that is more integrated, preventive and person-centred. So let us provide you with an update on this progress.

5.              To date, Woodlands Hospital has launched all four specialist-supported care programmes for asthma, diabetes, psychiatry and post-colonoscopy care. Suitable patients can now attend routine consultations at enhanced Community Health Posts (CHPs) and through teleconsultations instead of at the Woodlands Hospital. This allows patients to receive follow-up care closer to home or remotely, saving a physical visit to the clinic. More than 100 residents have benefitted from this initiative so far.

6.             On preventive care services, NHG Health has enhanced 13 CHPs which are co-located within our Active Ageing Centres (AACs) in Woodlands Town. Because they are open weekly, residents can walk in easily and access services more conveniently. These services include basic preventive health advice and assessments, support for medical issues such as managing chronic diseases, and follow-up support after discharge from hospitals. 

7.             Beyond these enhanced CHPs, NHG Health has extended CHPs services more directly to the Malay/Muslim community by establishing CHPs in the mosques. One such CHP was established at Masjid An-Nur in April this year, with 93 consultations conducted till date. I am happy to share that a second CHP at Masjid Yusof Ishak was established earlier this month. NHG Health has also partnered with mosques in Woodlands Town to co-develop customised workshops and screening programmes for the community.

8.             These efforts reflect a more intentional and person-centred approach to healthcare delivery, bringing care closer to residents, and tailoring outreach and support to the needs of different communities.

Better Care Through Multidisciplinary Integration and AI-Enabled Precision

9.             But improving health outcomes alone is not just about bringing care closer to residents. It is also about ensuring that care is well coordinated across the different settings where residents receive support. That is why we are strengthening the links between community, primary and specialist care so that residents can receive the right support at each stage of their health journey.

10.          This becomes even more important for patients with digestive health conditions who may often have complex needs that require care and support from medical and surgical specialties such as gastroenterology and general surgery. When these services are provided separately, patients and their caregivers may have to attend multiple appointments and navigate different care plans, creating unnecessary stress and uncertainty.

11.          The Digestive Health Centre changes this care model. By bringing together a multidisciplinary team across digestive health services, including gastroenterologists and surgeons, nurses, allied health professionals and other support services, it creates a care continuum that enables patients to be assessed more holistically and receive coordinated treatment plans from the outset. This makes the care journey more seamless and reassuring for both patients and their families.

12.          Better care is not only about the quality of diagnosis and treatment. It is also about ensuring patients receive the right care at the right time, as timely access can directly affect care outcomes.

13.          This is particularly valuable for conditions where early detection and timely intervention can significantly improve outcomes. And I was so heartened to hear Mr Jaswant Singh’s story, I think that is a wonderful example. So one example is colorectal cancer, which remains one of the most common cancers in Singapore. For these patients, timely screening, diagnosis and treatment can make a significant difference to outcomes.

14.          To facilitate this, the Centre has introduced open access pathways for gastroscopies and colonoscopies, supported by clear referral criteria and established clinical protocols. Because you also want to do this meaningfully – if you open it up to all, then you are not allocating resources meaningfully. So in this case, primary care physicians can refer eligible patients directly for diagnostic scopes after appropriate counselling on what the test is about and proper sample collection procedures. Patients with a positive Faecal Immunochemical Test, or “FIT” result are counselled on the potential implications of the results and can be referred directly to a colonoscopy without first needing a specialist consultation, enabling more timely follow-up care.

15.          This approach allows patients to move more smoothly from screening to diagnosis and receive the appropriate follow-up earlier. At the same time, specialist clinic capacity is preserved for patients with higher-risk or more complex conditions.

16.          The Centre also harnesses technology as a tool to support clinical decision-making. During endoscopy procedures, artificial intelligence (AI) is used to analyse live video feeds and help clinicians detect subtle abnormalities including small or pre-cancerous polyps. This supports more accurate diagnoses and improves the quality and consistency of care. And I believe I will be able to see some demonstration of this later, and I am looking forward to that.

Future-Ready Care Through Population Health Insights and Precision Prevention

17.          Beyond improving care for individual patients, the Centre also creates opportunities to strengthen population health. By bringing together patients, clinical expertise and data across the digestive health journey, it can generate deeper insights into patterns of digestive and metabolic diseases among residents in the North. These insights will help clinicians better understand how diseases develop and progress, identify residents at risk earlier and determine which interventions are most effective.

18.          Over time, NHG Health will use these data insights to tailor screening more effectively and strengthen preventive health efforts across the North, particularly for conditions with rising prevalence in Singapore, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease.

Conclusion

19.          Taken together, these efforts show how care can be organised around the needs of residents, from early detection to diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and prevention.

20.          Ultimately, the success of the Digestive Health Centre will be measured by the difference it makes to patients and their families. By enabling residents to access care earlier, navigate their health journey more easily, and receive coordinated support across disciplines, the Centre will contribute meaningfully to better health outcomes for years to come.

21.          On this note, I would like to commend the leadership, clinicians, nurses, allied health professionals, administrative teams and community partners at Woodlands Hospital and NHG Health for their vision and hard work in bringing the Digestive Health Centre to fruition.

22.          It is now my pleasure to declare the Digestive Health Centre at Woodlands Hospital officially open. Thank you.