National Healthcare Group

The National Healthcare Group (NHG) is a group of healthcare institutions located in Singapore. The group was formed in 2000 and operates several hospitals, national specialty centers and polyclinics. Tan Tock Seng Hospital is the largest hospital in the group and serves as the flagship hospital for the cluster.

History
In November 1999, then-Minister for Health Lim Hng Kiang announced that Singapore's public healthcare institutions would be reorganized into two delivery networks, or clusters. In October 2000, the formation of the two clusters - National Healthcare Group and SingHealth - was officially completed. NHG reports that it offers accessible, continuous, economical, and wide-ranging health care service. The stated core values of the National health care group are that it's "people-centric, ethical, responsible, and has empathy toward the community and its members".

Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) was established in 1844 and named after its founder, Mr. Tan Tock Seng, a philanthropist. Over the years, TTSH became Singapore's second largest acute care general hospital with over 1,500 beds. It is located in Novena, Singapore and its campus includes the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare Innovation and two National Specialty Centers.

Yishun Health Campus
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) is a 795-bed general hospital in Yishun that was opened in 2010, while the Yishun Community Hospital (YCH) is a 428-bed community hospital that was opened in 2015. Both hospitals are grouped together as a regional health campus called Yishun Health Campus.

Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health (IMH) is the first and only psychiatric hospital in Singapore. It was founded in 1928, initially accommodating around 1,000 patients. The hospital includes departments such as clinical psychology, nursing, occupational therapy, and medical social work. As of 2015, it is a 2,000-bed acute tertiary psychiatric hospital situated on a 25-hectare campus at Buangkok Green Medical Park. It conducts psychiatric, rehabilitative and counselling services for children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. There are 50 wards for inpatients and seven Specialist Outpatient Clinics. It is also a national training center for psychiatrists and mental health professionals.

National Healthcare Group Polyclinics
National Healthcare Group Polyclinics is the primary healthcare arm of the NHG. It has eight polyclinics in the central and northern parts of Singapore. They provide treatment for acute medical conditions, management of chronic diseases, women and child health services and dental care, health promotion, early and accurate diagnosis, and disease management through physician led team-based care as well as enhancing the capability of Family Medicine through research and teaching.

National Skin Centre
The National Skin Centre (NSC) is an outpatient specialist dermatology center located next to Tan Tock Seng Hospital as part of the Healthcity Novena complex. It handles a patient load of about 1,000 patients daily. Incorporated on 9 June 1988, it started operations on 1 November 1988 after taking over the treatment of skin diseases from Middle Road Hospital. It provides specialized dermatological services, trains medical students and postgraduates, and undertakes research in dermatology. The center also conducts continuing medical education for doctors and paramedical personnel.

Other institutions
Apart from the provision of healthcare through healthcare institutions, the NHG also operates several other divisions in other areas such as education and ancillary health services.

NHG College
National Healthcare Group College was established on 19 July 2002 to educate, train and raise the professionalism of NHG staff. It is structured into four institutes, namely the Institute of Healthcare Leadership, Institute of Clinical Education, Institute of Healthcare Quality and the Institute of Professional Training.

NHG Diagnostics
NHG Diagnostics was founded in 2000. It provides laboratory and imaging services in primary healthcare via its extensive network of over 30 imaging centers, laboratories and a fleet of mobile service vehicles in Singapore. Its diagnostic services at polyclinics, community hospitals, general practitioner clinics, nursing homes, home care providers and the community include general X-ray, mammography, ultrasound, electrocardiography, bone mineral densitometry, spirometry, phlebotomy and laboratory testing. All its laboratories and radiography centers are accredited with ISO 15189. It also provides teleradiology reporting and professional services in managing radiology and laboratory clinics.

NHG Pharmacy
NHG Pharmacy manages the pharmacy and retail pharmacies at the nine polyclinics and in retail centers, and also provides medication management services to intermediate and long term care facilities. The pharmacies also provide smoking cessation clinics, anti-coagulation clinics, and hypertension-diabetes-lipidaemia clinics led by pharmacists to control chronic diseases. NHG Pharmacy also allows patients to refill their prescriptions online, and choose to have their uncollected medicines delivered to them, or collected from a designated polyclinic.

Primary Care Academy
Established in April 2007, the Primary Care Academy provides training and skills upgrading for primary care doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and ancillary staff.

NHG-Johns Hopkins Singapore Institute
NHG-Johns Hopkins Singapore Institute is a co-branded venture between NHG and Johns Hopkins Medicine International that provides oncology services in Singapore.