SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES, AT THE NHG HEALTH MUSCULOSKELETAL DAY HEALTH FIESTA, 28 MARCH 2026

Residents, partners, good morning.

1.            Today, we have a few advisers with us – we have first Ms Poh Li San, adviser,  Sembawang West. Mr Vikram Nair - this is actually his division – adviser, Admiralty. Mr Ng Shi Xuan, adviser, Naval Base, and Mariam Jafaar, who needs no introduction. First of all, very happy to join all of you for NHG Musculoskeletal (MSK) Day Health Fiesta, thank you for inviting me.

2.            Musculoskeletal health is important, especially as you get older. Why? Because it means your muscles, your joints, must be strong, must be flexible, because only then can you go about your daily lives, exercise, do things you love, smoothly and ably. When you don't have MSK health, your lifestyle is really affected.

3.            So, Singapore, we are already super-aged, and many of us are getting older, crossing this magical age of 65 – then you become senior, and we must really begin to watch out closely for our MSK health. And it's especially important for women, and I see there are more women than men seated in the audience today. Why? Because for women, there are hormonal changes, there is pregnancy, there's menopause, which affects your musculoskeletal health much more than men. So fortunately, there's a lot we can do to make sure we stay healthy.

4.            First, we can develop good health habits early. We had some demonstrations just now, just having good diet, good sleep, and importantly, you do exercises, and as you see on stage just now – exercises are not difficult. You don't have to join a gym, subscribe to membership, in order to do this. Often, it's simple exercises. A chair, with enough space to stand and lift your leg. If you can - have dumbbells, resistant bands. If you don't have – pour away your soda water which is full of sugar, fill it up with plain water and you can use it as weights. So, all these are simple exercises that we can all do.

5.            Some good news - Health Promotion Board (HPB) has been working very closely with Sembawang GRC and with all the advisers, and we will be introducing more exercise groups and walking groups in Sembawang GRC very soon. So please participate actively.

6.            There are also many fitness corners, all underused. They are built, often by HDB, by the town council but actually, they are underused. HPB is going to deploy volunteers to guide residents on how to use these fitness corners properly.

7.            HPB has a wonderful app called Healthy 365. Healthy 365 will have new features. It will help you find where is the nearest place where you can engage in exercises. I haven't tried it, but it's a bit like finding Pokémon, but now, instead of Pokémon, you find a place where you can engage in good exercise. So that's first step. Have a good habit. Start good habits early.

8.            Second is to detect early – because there are screen tests that are very common, like bone density tests that can detect early onset of osteoarthritis or osteoporosis. And today these are subsidised, but maybe not subsidised enough, but now we've got Healthier SG. More than half of eligible Singaporeans have joined Healthier SG, and we want to encourage more people to go for screening. So MOH, we are working with the doctors to develop healthcare protocols, and there will be protocols to prevent frailty to encourage people to go for bone screening tests. It may take a while for us to do this, a lot of consultations, but once it's done, expect better subsidy for bone density screening.

9.            Finally, if you have detected a health issue, you can manage it well and prevent it from getting worse. And this does not always have to mean seeing doctors, taking medication. A lot, as I mentioned earlier, can be done through physical exercise, staying active. Maybe you can see a physiotherapist, see a fitness coach, change your lifestyle a bit, and you can reverse your condition, or just make sure that it doesn't get any worse. To do so, we have to build community support to help you manage the conditions if you have them, and this we will try to do through our network of AACs, the Active Ageing Centres, and we now have more than 230 of them around Singapore.

10.         Most seniors I ask, do you know about AACs? They all say, I know about AACs. I ask, do you go? Half will say they go, the other half say, not free,must take care of grandchildren, or I'm still working, which is fine, but those who need AACs, I think, now know that there's AACs that you can go.

11.         What we will do, is to improve the AACs. And today I want to talk about one major improvement to the AACs, which is the CHPs, the Community Health Post. We will combine operation of the CHPs and the AACs to make this system even better.

12.         CHP is not new, we started several years back, but the way CHP operate is this – we open once a month, once every two weeks, and people visit the CHP by appointments. So, they are usually patients discharged from hospital back to the community, and by appointment they come to the CHP for follow up. So, I think we can improve that. We can widen the access of CHPs to more seniors living in the area. I think we can make use of the pulling power of AACs – AACs attract so many seniors now. When they come to AACs, they can also visit the CHPs. And if CHPs do a good job, AACs become even more attractive. So, CHPs, AACS, can work closer together to benefit each other.

13.         NHG Health is spearheading this new model of CHP, it will improve in the following ways.

14.         Number one, the enhanced CHPs, the pilot projects, it will start in Woodlands, across 11 enhanced CHPs in Woodlands – that's the pilot project. If it's successful, we will extend to the rest of NHG’s coverage, and then extend to the other clusters so that the entire Singapore is covered. But Woodlands will start first in your 11 CHPs. So, what are the improvements? Number one, it will be run by community nurses and health coaches and will operate weekly instead of fortnightly or monthly. Number two, anyone aged 18 and above can walk into these enhanced CHPs without the need for appointment or a referral. Above 18, you can just walk in, don't need any appointments. So if you are generally healthy, or you got a question to ask – how to better manage my health, or I have some pain, some aches, I want better exercises, I want to check my medication, I want to check when should I go for health screening, I want to check my health plan with my Healthier SG doctor, or I want to join Healthier SG, I haven't joined, but provided you above 40 – you can go to a CHP.

15.         Seniors, especially, you can stop by the CHP for health checks and frailty screening, which is very important and if you have chronic conditions where you need additional support, you can also receive services like medication reviews, counselling, health coaching on lifestyle modifications, and how to adhere to your health plan.

16.         Number three, enhanced CHPs will integrate their operations with the AACs, as I mentioned earlier. For example, CHPs can make an effort to refer seniors to the Active Ageing Centre’s activities. AACs, in turn, can work with CHP to design programs suitable for seniors. Number four, number four is exciting. You may also see a specialist at the CHPs through telehealth, because the specialist won't be there at the CHP. The specialist support care will be provided by this hospital, Woodlands Hospital. So for a start, they will support residents with selected conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and patients who have undergone colonoscopy screening with low-risk results.

17.         So for many patients, this means avoiding one more visit to the specialist centre. Beyond this pilot initiative, we plan to extend to more specialties in the future. And this service is not free. It will be chargeable with appropriate subsidies – it is no different from a physical visit to a specialist centre, but you can now do it in the   community. And if medications are prescribed after your teleconsultation with a specialist, the patient can place an order, and delivery of medication can be done to your homes or in the lockers in the community.

18.         So today, these are all the improvements of NHG’s CHPs in time to come. Today, NHG health is exhibiting a new booth called the Community Health Pod . When you see the Community Health Pod set up, it means the CHP today is doing business. So once a week, you will see the Pod set up. If you are free, do visit the Pod and give us your feedback on how to improve this.

19.         Our objective is to make healthy living a natural part of everyday life, and healthcare is all around us, at home and in our community. We want to make sure it's not just exercises, medication, but life must be filled with activity, laughter, joy, friendship – this is the best way to stay healthy.

20.         So, I wish everybody a healthy year ahead, and do visit your AACs and work together with us for better quality of life.

21.         Thank you.