National Healthcare Group Polyclinics (NHGP) forms the primary healthcare arm of the National Healthcare Group (NHG). Its six polyclinics serve a significant proportion of the population in the central and northern parts of Singapore.
NHGP provides a comprehensive range of health services for the family, functioning as a one-stop health centre providing treatment for acute medical conditions, management of chronic diseases, women & child health services and dental care. The focus of NHGP’s care is on health promotion and disease prevention, early and accurate diagnosis, disease management through physician led team-based care as well as enhancing the capability of Family Medicine through research and teaching.
Through the Family Medicine Academy and the NHG Family Medicine Residency Programme, NHGP plays an integral role in the delivery of primary care training at medical undergraduate and post-graduate levels. With the Primary Care Academy, NHGP provides training to caregivers and other primary care counterparts in the community sector.
For more information, please visit www.nhgp.com.sg.
Being a Regional Health System (RHS) has redefined the way we provide patient care and collaborate with our partners and stakeholders. We emphasise on person-centred care as we move to make healthcare safe, reliable and seamless for our patients. What this means is care from the patient’s perspective instead of the provider’s.
While we are the RHS for the Central Region of Singapore, our care reaches out island-wide. Some of our polyclinics, for instance, are located in the North. Our two national specialty centres – the Institute of Mental Health and National Skin Centre – also serve patients from all over Singapore.
With Singapore’s rapidly ageing population and more people developing chronic diseases, the old hospital-centric model of care is no longer sustainable. We need to – and must – work with our partners and stakeholders in the primary, acute and step-down care sectors.
Likewise, a doctor-centric service must give way to a multi-disciplinary approach to enhance chronic disease management and improve population health. Now nurses, allied health professionals and others will certainly have more important roles to play as we shift towards team-based care.
Beyond the hospital walls, team-based care is also about collaborating with our RHS alliance partners – who include primary care providers, community hospitals, nursing homes, home care providers, hospices and other social service providers – to provide care for the community.