SINGAPORE, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Singapore will introduce a health campus where smart technology will be adopted for a better and more sustainable healthcare system, said Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
The health campus which spans an area over 7.66 hectares in the Singapore's north region Woodlands will add 1,800 hospital beds and is set to open progressively from 2022.
Woodlands Health Campus (WHC) comprises a general hospital, a community hospital, a nursing home as well as daycare facilities for senior citizens.
According to the ministry, WHC will be the first healthcare campus in the country to fully integrate an acute hospital, community hospital and long term care facilities in a single development.
Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony on Tuesday, Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong said this would enable WHC to better integrate care, break organizational boundaries and enable patients to seamlessly move from one facility to another according to their care needs.
WHC will also employ new technology to reduce manual work as well as using data analytics and artificial intelligence to improve patient care.
Robots will be deployed to cope with back-end logistics such as food services, housekeeping and the central sterile supplies unit.
The adoption of smart technology allows healthcare professionals such as nurses to focus more on their clinical and direct patient care roles, the minister said.
