MoH's Healthier SG lowers hospitals' load and cuts spending

With the establishment of ambulatory care centres, some of Singapore’s big hospitals resolved their overwhelmed capacity.

This same strategy is applied with The Ministry of Health’s Healthier SG, which seeks to place higher focus on preventive care with an ecosystem-based approach that engaged general practitioners and community care centres, offloading the burden from tertiary care hospitals.

“The main idea behind Healthier SG is to shift the emphasis of the healthcare system from treatment to prevention. In the long run, this will produce better health outcomes for the population at a lower cost. For this to happen, the locus of activity needs to shift from hospitals to community care providers, particularly GPs,” Dr. Alan Ong, principal at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), told Singapore Business Review. Under the health reform, there are four goals: