Speech by President Halimah Yacob at the National Healthcare Group Polyclinics 20th Anniversary

Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Health,

Madam Kay Kuok, Chairman, National Healthcare Group,

Professor Philip Choo, Group CEO, National Healthcare Group

Associate Professor Chong Phui-Nah, CEO, National Healthcare Group Polyclinics and Primary Care,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very good afternoon to all of you. I am pleased to join you today at this virtual event to celebrate 20 years of quality primary healthcare by the National Healthcare Group Polyclinics (NHGP).

NHGP has played a key role in Singapore’s primary care landscape. As the first line of care in the community, primary care forms the foundation of Singapore’s healthcare system. In times like this, as we face the COVID-19 pandemic together, primary care plays an even more critical role in containing the virus and keeping our citizens safe and healthy. I would like to commend the NHGP staff for the hard work and sacrifices in support of our nation’s fight against the pandemic. Thank you for your courage, resilience and selflessness.

Over the past two decades, NHGP has constantly strived to improve the quality of its patient care by forging strong partnerships and exploring innovative ways of delivering care. One such partnership is the Primary Tech-Enhanced Care (PTEC) Hypertension pilot with the Ministry of Health’s Office for Healthcare Transformation. The results from this PTEC pilot have been promising. The participating patients showed a significant improvement in blood pressure control and appreciated the convenience of using Bluetooth-enabled measuring devices and an SMS Chatbot to help keep their blood pressure in check. NHGP is working on a new partnership with the Singapore University of Social Sciences to co-develop and co-run health-related courses, which will contribute towards the attainment of a degree in Applied Psychology. It is also encouraging to see that NHGP has turned the COVID-19 situation into an opportunity by going digital and expanding its tele-health services. More patients can now consult NHGP’s care teams safely and conveniently from their homes, with more than 125,000 such sessions conducted across NHGP’s six polyclinics in 2020.

As our nation progresses, we also need to take good care of our seniors, who helped build Singapore into what it is today. I am therefore glad to learn that NHGP has various initiatives to provide better care for seniors, such as the Ageing-in-Place Studio at Toa Payoh Polyclinic, which aims to equip seniors and their caregivers with the knowhow to make their homes safer. Since 2019, all six NHGP polyclinics have also been conducting Advance Care Planning sessions to facilitate important conversations about end-of-life care. NHGP also recently introduced a Frailty Screening Programme to identify at-risk elderly patients and guide them on the steps to prevent or delay complications related to functional decline, benefiting more than 1,000 seniors to date.

In closing, I wish to congratulate the staff and management of NHGP on reaching this major milestone. I am confident that NHGP will continue to advance Family Medicine and transform primary care to benefit the communities that you serve. Thank you.