Longer wait times expected as S’pore healthcare institutions report system disruptions

[SINGAPORE] Visitors and patients were advised on Tuesday (Oct 13) to expect longer wait times, as local public healthcare institutions report ongoing service disruptions.

Two of the three public health clusters – NHG Health and the National University Health System (NUHS) – issued notices regarding the disruptions on social media.

Singapore General Hospital, which is under the SingHealth cluster, separately posted a notice on its Facebook page.

NHG Health said in a Facebook post at about 9 am that call services across its cluster are “temporarily unavailable”.

It added that it is working to restore access, but did not specify the cause of the disruption.

According to its website, the four hospitals under NHG Health are Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Woodlands Hospital and Yishun Community Hospital. Also under the group are 10 polyclinics in areas such as Ang Mo Kio and Khatib.

Tan Tock Seng Hospital said in a Facebook post at about 9.40 am that patients visiting its clinics and pharmacy could experience longer waiting times.

“Patients and members of the public may visit our websites and the HealthHub and NHG Health App for assistance,” NHG Health said.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience caused. We seek your understanding and patience during this time.”

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Separately, the National University Hospital (NUH) said in an Instagram post at about 10.30 am that it was experiencing a “system downtime”.

At about 11.30 am, the National University Health System (NUHS) said in a Facebook post that its institutions are currently experiencing technical disruptions affecting multiple systems.

NUH is one of the hospitals under the NUHS cluster, which also includes Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Alexandra Hospital.

NUHS said that it is working with national healthtech agency Synapxe to resolve the matter and restore full access as soon as possible, adding that patient care continues to be its priority.

In its post, NUHS also sought the public’s understanding that longer waiting times may be expected.

It advised patients and members of the public to visit its social media platforms for updates.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused as we work to resolve the matter.”

Singapore General Hospital said in a Facebook post at about 11.30 am that it is “experiencing a temporary system disruption affecting some of our services”.

This includes outpatient appointment bookings and changes, visitor registration and billing enquiries, it added.

“Our teams are working to restore the affected systems as soon as possible and will provide updates when services resume.”

The Straits Times has contacted the Ministry of Health for more information. THE STRAITS TIMES