Patients can now choose hospital-level care at home and pay subsidised rates starting April 1. The Ministry of Health is expanding the Mobile Inpatient Care @ Home (MIC@Home) service to address Singapore’s hospital capacity issues, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said.
Speaking in Parliament on March 6 during his Ministry’s budget debate, Mr Ong said the service, which was initially offered on a trial basis in 2022, will now become a regular service at public hospitals.
This means patients can use their MediSave healthcare savings and insurance payouts from MediShield Life and Integrated Shield Plans to pay for the service.
“Patients can be assured that they will not pay any more for this service than they do in a public hospital as all our hospitals intend to price MIC@Home similar to or lower than a normal ward,” he said.
The programme offers patients the option to recover from illness at home instead of a hospital ward. A team of healthcare professionals provide care through teleconsultations and home visits.
If a patient’s condition deteriorates, care escalation protocols will be triggered, including activating emergency medical services.
The service is offered to eligible patients with conditions like skin infections, urinary tract infections, and congestive heart failure with fluid overload.
Mr Ong said as a first step, MIC@Home’s capacity will expand from 100 virtual beds in 2023 to 300 in 2024, with potential to scale up further.
As of the end of 2023, more than 2,000 people have benefited from the service, translating to about 9,000 hospital bed days saved.
#2 Public hospitals to add 4,000 beds over next 6 years
To meet the needs of Singapore’s rapidly ageing population, MOH plans to add 4,000 more public hospital beds by 2030, Health Minister Mr Ong said. Currently there are over 11,000 public hospital beds.
This is double the target of 1,900 additional public hospital beds over the next five years that Mr Ong mentioned in last year’s Budget debate.
The 150-bed SGH Emergency Medicine Building is slated to open this year. Woodlands Health Campus will add up to 700 beds by 2024 and 2025. By 2026, Sengkang General Hospital and Outram Community Hospital will each gain about 350 beds by converting non-clinical areas into wards. The 300-bed SGH Elective Care Centre will open in 2027.
The redeveloped Alexandra Hospital and the Eastern General Hospital Campus at Bedok North will progressively open their new facilities between 2028 and 2030.
#3 New hospital in Tengah by the early 2030s
To address hospital capacity issues, MOH will build a new integrated general and community hospital in Tengah town by the early 2030s, Mr Ong said.
Mr Ong said the new Tengah hospital will “best complement” existing hospitals in the west, including Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital.
“We have just completed one in the north, Woodlands Health, are building another in the east, and expanding SGH (Singapore General Hospital) in the central region. So, the next new public hospital should be in the west.”
The National University Health System will operate the hospital. NUHS runs several polyclinics, national specialty centers, and hospitals including National University Hospital and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.
Singapore will have a total of 13 public acute hospitals and 12 community hospitals by the early 2030s, said MOH.
#4 MediShield Life insurance coverage being, claim limits to be reviewed
MOH is reviewing MediShield Life insurance to ensure healthcare remains affordable due to rising costs, said Mr Ong. Premiums for the insurance plan is likely to increase.
Launched in 2015, MediShield Life is Singapore’s basic health insurance plan that helps citizens pay for large hospital bills and selected costly outpatient treatments.
Mr Ong said MediShield was designed to cover nine in 10 subsidised bills, but no longer does.
Hospital bills have grown 5 per cent annually in public hospitals and 7 per cent annually in private hospitals in recent years.
As a result, the proportion of subsidised bills adequately covered by MediShield Life has come down to around eight out of 10. Coverage is expected to continue to decline.
He pointed out that subsidised patients face unexpectedly large hospital bills after subsidies and MediShield Life payments, leaving them to pay substantial amounts out of pocket.
As such, a MediShield Life Council was formed to review the plan. It will raise current claim limits for inpatient and day surgery treatments to cover 90 per cent of subsidised bills.
It will consider extending MediShield Life coverage to more outpatient and home care, and improving coverage of treatments already included like dialysis. Coverage may also be expanded to include groundbreaking cell, tissue, and gene therapy products known as CTGTPs.
It will review MediSave limits together to provide better coverage.
He said that though changes will better protect subsidised patients, MediShield Life premiums will rise.
“But rest assured that we will do the necessary to ensure that as far as possible, premiums can be paid fully by MediSave…No one will lose MediShield Life coverage due to a genuine inability to afford the premiums.”
Details will be shared when the council finishes its review later this year.
#5 Enhanced home personal care services for frailer seniors
The Ministry of Health will strengthen support for seniors with mobility issues, enabling them to receive more care options at home. This includes an enhanced Home Personal Care service (HPC+) that will provide additional care and monitoring.
The current Home Personal Care service provides services to support seniors with daily activities like bathing and feeding, and housekeeping services. The new HPC+ service will feature round-the-clock technology-enabled monitoring and response to detect falls and incidents so that family members can be assured that their loved ones will receive timely help.
Caregivers who require respite services can also tap on HPC+ for extended duration to support seniors’ care at home.
Currently, the HPC+ has been rolled out as a pilot at 11 sites. MOH will evaluate the pilot by end-2024 before considering expanding it islandwide.
#6 More Healthier SG protocols for chronic conditions to keep care consistent
The Government will expand the range of Healthier SG Care Protocols to cover more conditions by early 2025.
The protocols will address chronic conditions like stable stroke and stable ischemic heart disease to ensure consistent care across Healthier SG clinics. The aim is also to incorporate aspects of mental health.
Currently, doctors under the Healthier SG initiative follow 12 protocols. These cover screening, vaccinations, and management of common chronic diseases.
As of February, 765,000 residents aged 40 and above have enrolled with a family doctor of their choice under Healthier SG, a preventive care programme where residents aged 40 and above enrol with a family doctor who will jointly develop a personalised health plan.
Source of feature image: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission
