SPEECH BY MR TAN KIAT HOW, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION & MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AT THE EASTERN GENERAL HOSPITAL CAMPUS HEALTH FEST

Mr Cheng Wai Keung, Chairman, SingHealth

Associate Professor Gan Wee Hoe, Pro Tem CEO, Eastern General Hospital and CEO, SingHealth Community Hospitals

Associate Professor Lionel Cheng, CEO (Designate), SingHealth Community Hospitals

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

1.               A very good morning and I am very happy to welcome you to Kampong Chai Chee and Bedok Town Square. Here behind us – bustling noises, the thick of the morning breakfast crowd – I see many, many residents here to celebrate this joyous occasion and important milestone, which is the Eastern General Hospital Campus Health Fest,  including the unveiling of the digital plans. But more importantly, marking an event we all look forward to – the important step towards the opening of Eastern General Hospital (EGH).

2.               As Wee Hoe pointed out, today we have Changi General Hospital (CGH). I was telling colleagues that I look at the bed occupancy rate, I look at utilisation statistics every week at the Ministry of Health. I must say that CGH is “排上有名”, always “名列前茅”. All the hard work that the team is doing. With the Eastern General Hospital and the community hospital coming out, it will be a plane with two fully functioning engines supporting the health and wellness of our residents here in the East part of Singapore.

3.               I am very happy to celebrate this important step towards that milestone. I am also very happy to see many familiar faces today: residents, neighbours, friends, and the many partners – Wee Hoe mentioned 22 partners here today – working alongside all of us to serve the community here in the East, including at Kampong Chai Chee.

4.               The EGH Campus will be ready from 2029, but the teams are not strangers. The team has already started engaging the residents that they will be serving and familiarising themselves with the community, as shown by today’s event, and all the partners that are gathered here today.

5.               We just completed our Committee of Supply (COS) debates in Parliament. Yesterday was the last day. We also just finished the Ministry of Health’s COS debates in Parliament. As Minister Ong Ye Kung put it, “welcome to super-aged Singapore”. 21% or more of our residents are already aged 65 and above, and this will further increase to one in four by the end of this decade, in 2030. With longer life expectancy, many more Singaporeans are expected to live with multiple chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes. And this presents challenges to our healthcare system as care needs increase and become more complex.

6.               These demographic shifts are already visible in many mature estates in Singapore. In the East, estates such as Bedok, Marine Parade, and parts of Tampines have higher concentrations of seniors. The EGH Campus therefore will be a much-welcomed addition by our residents. I think we welcome it more than shopping malls.

7.               While hospitals play a critical role in providing care to our residents, we must shift the emphasis from acute or episodic treatment to also invest in well-coordinated care in the community. This includes helping older residents manage long-term conditions, supporting them through recovery and rehabilitation, and building strong community support networks.

8.               We also need to work with our residents and partners to nurture a health-promoting ecosystem right here in the community. We want our seniors to be active, healthy and socially connected for as long as possible. This requires the collective effort of the wider health and social system that comprises primary, acute, intermediate and long-term care providers, as well as community partners and social services agencies. It takes a village to care for one another.

9.               National strategies such as Healthier SG and Age Well SG are major steps in this direction.

Enriching partnerships for happier, healthier communities

10.           I am glad that the EGH Campus team has already started collaborating with community partners such as senior activity centres and active ageing centres to promote health education and introduce health programmes that will benefit our community, particularly our seniors.

11.           For example, EGH is working with Montfort Care to provide programmes, such as curated health talks and activities, for the seniors at the Montfort Care Good Health Lab at Bedok Reservoir Road.

12.           The EGH team is also working with Filos Community Services, in partnership with CGH, to develop Filos’ new community wellness hub in Chai Chee. The hub is envisioned as a space for residents of all ages, offering intergenerational programmes, community nursing support, and caregiver support all under one roof.

Smarter healthcare for better care

13.           Healthcare must also become smarter. As Wee Hoe said, it is about harnessing technology, whether it is Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital technologies, robotics, or automation, so that our most important people – clinicians or frontline staff – can provide better care for our residents. It is not about technology displacing people, or making care automated. It is about enhancing that human touch, enhancing the care for patients and their loved ones in the community. And we are harnessing technology to do so, making healthcare more accessible and efficient for everyone.

14.           When the EGH Campus broke ground two years ago, Minister Ong Ye Kung said that EGH would be a digitally-enabled hospital that embraces technology to deliver care.

15.           I am very pleased to witness EGH Campus unveil its smart hospital roadmap, affirming its commitment to providing high quality, timely and accessible care, leveraging technology and digital solutions.

16.           The EGH Campus’ smart hospital roadmap comprises three pillars – Smart Care, Smart Operations, and Smart Infrastructure. Let me give all of you a sneak preview of how they will benefit.

17.           First, Smart Care. EGH has begun caring for patients through virtual healthcare services. An example is SingHealth’s Mobile Inpatient Care (MIC)@Home programme, where patients receive acute hospital level of care at home, in an environment where they are comfortable in. Another example is the Virtual Professional Consultation, a tele-collaboration service which enables specialists to support polyclinic and GP clinics in managing cases in the community.

18.           EGH has also started a telehealth collaboration pilot with Vanguard Healthcare. Specialists from EGH support medical teams across five nursing homes by reviewing complex cases remotely, thereby helping to avoid unnecessary hospital visits.

19.           Beyond virtual healthcare services, digital innovation is also making a difference in rehabilitation care. The EGH team and their partners at CGH have been working on a smart watch that helps patients prepare for abdominal surgery. The watch tracks how often and how well the patients perform their prescribed exercises. The watch then generates a score, which is shared with the care team. This allows doctors to provide personalised guidance and help patients better prepare for their surgery. So that is Smart Care.

20.           The second pillar is Smart Operations. As EGH develops its campus, it will incorporate digitalisation, robotics, and automation to drive operational efficiency and optimise resources. This is technology that works behind the scenes to keep the hospital running smoothly and efficiently, extending the productivity and capacity for the campus’ workforce. And when I met many frontline clinicians and care teams in hospitals, they want such technology to also improve their work life balance. They have a lot of stress at work. Healthcare and caring for patients – it is not just hard work, it is also heart work. They care a lot, and having smart operations will hopefully relieve some of the stress of our frontline team and give them time for themselves as well. So I am looking forward to that.

21.           One example is SingHealth Community Hospitals’ use of AI to assess suitability to transfer patients who no longer need acute care to community hospitals. This involves an AI-powered referral system that generates case summaries and makes recommendations to the care team. This tool can potentially achieve time savings of more than 170 man-hours a month, shortening the referral and triaging process and benefiting patients who can be transferred in a more timely manner. And hopefully less stress for our care team personnel as well.

22.           Technology can also help to improve communication between patients and their care teams. I am heartened to see that SCH is piloting a Generative AI translation tool that translates our mother tongue languages and even dialects. This allows patients and caregivers to overcome any language barriers in real-time with our care teams. This tool is being validated to ensure it is safe and effective for use in healthcare settings. For patients, especially our seniors, this means that they can better express their concerns and their worries to the care team, and better understand their treatment and the kind of prescriptions and care they need to go through. It is a win-win on both sides.

23.           Let me lastly touch on the last pillar – Smart Infrastructure. The EGH Campus is embedding technology into its physical infrastructure from the outset by design. For example, we can expect features like flexible room designs that can be reconfigured as needs change, and real-time location systems to track equipment, staff and patients, allowing healthcare teams to respond more quickly to patient needs.

24.           EGH is working with Mandai X to enhance the healthcare experience and provide a truly healing environment for its patients. Some interesting features being explored include nature-inspired visuals on screens, digital gardens and therapeutic soundscapes. These elements bring the calm of the natural environment into the hospital, demonstrating the team’s commitment to create healthcare spaces that are both technologically advanced and patient-centred.

Closing

25.           So let me close by saying, I invite us to reimagine the future of healthcare together – one where care is not only advanced and innovative, but also deeply human, inclusive and rooted in the community. And that is the vision the Ministry of Health has, shifting emphasis from acute care to more preventive, more predictive, more community-centred and patient-centred care And today’s unveiling of the smart hospital roadmap is just the beginning of EGH Campus’ digital journey, and I look forward to more innovations and digital-forward initiatives from the team in the future.

26.           I want to thank Wee Hoe and the EGH Campus team, as well as Chairman, for guiding the work. And all our community partners and everyone here today for your support for EGH Campus, and for your dedication and passion to building healthier communities. Even as we embrace technologies like AI, let us not forget that it is the human touch – your skills, your care and your dedication – that truly makes healthcare work and truly makes a difference in the lives of people that we serve.

27.           On that note, let me once again warmly welcome EGH to the East – Welcome to the Best Side. Thank you.