Western Singapore Welcomes New Hospital Complex

The new Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH; Jurong, Singapore) will open its doors to patients on June 30, 2015, six months behind its original schedule.

The 700-bed NTFGH and 400-bed Jurong Community Hospital (JCH), both a part of the JurongHealth (Singapore) entity, will form an integral part of the Jurong Lakeside District, slated to be the biggest destination for business and leisure in western Singapore. Initially, the hospital will operate 365 of its 700 beds, and 80 of its 120 outpatient clinic consultation rooms, and is expected to have 550 beds and 93 clinics in use by the end of its first year of operation. Two of the hospital's unused wards, with a total of 76 beds, will be run by staff of JCH, which will open at the end of 2015.

NTFGH and JCH are the first hospitals in Singapore to be designed and built together from the ground up as an integrated development. The pairing of the two facilities was designed so that patients who no longer require acute care can recuperate in a setting better catered to their needs. Patients will benefit from the co-management by doctors from both hospitals, and their medical records and treatment plans will also be integrated. Running the two hospitals as one will also assure patients and their caregivers seamlessly coordinated care and processes.

Because of the large industrial area nearby, the hospital expects to see more trauma cases than other public hospitals, and it will be able to provide decontamination if necessary. Its emergency department (ED) has six beds for critically ill patients who might need resuscitation, and 26 individual rooms for the severely ill. The latter can be quickly reconfigured in an emergency to cater to a much larger number of casualties. A quarter of the NTFGH beds will be for private patients.

“All patients, subsidized or private, will have a window because of its fan-shaped layout that is also designed to give maximum privacy,” said Foo Hee Jug, CEO of Jurong Health. “In line with newer ward designs, even the cheapest C class wards have six beds in a section sharing a toilet and shower, which is better for infection control; in older hospital wards, toilets and showers are centralized and often a distance away.”

Besides easy accessibility to public transport services via Jurong East MRT station and Jurong East Bus Interchange, JurongHealth’s new integrated healthcare hub will enjoy seamless connectivity to the surrounding retail, dining, and entertainment facilities.

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Ng Teng Fong General Hospital
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