Third and final phase of Healthcare Services Act 2020 in force from 18 December 2023: Repeals Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act 1980, new regulations on nursing home services

30 January 2024

Section 58 of the Healthcare Services Act 2020 (“HCSA”) came into force on 18 December 2023. Section 58 repeals the Private Hospitals and Medical Clincs Act 1980 (“PHMCA”). This is the third and final phase of the implementation of the HCSA.

The HCSA was enacted in 2020 to replace the PHMCA and ensure that healthcare regulation is kept up to date with new models of care. The HSCA has been implemented in three phases as follows:

Phase 1, which was implemented from 3 January 2022, involved clinical support services, such as clinical laboratory blood banking, radiological, emergency ambulance and medical transport services, as well as the General and Advertisement Regulations. For more information, please read our previous article titled “Partial commencement of the Healthcare Services Act 2020 with effect from 3 January 2022 to strengthen governance requirements for providers of healthcare services”.
Phase 2, which was implemented from 26 June 2023, involved most of the services then regulated under the PHMCA, such as acute and community hospitals, outpatient medical and dental services, assisted reproduction, ambulatory surgical centre, human tissue banking, nuclear medicine, and outpatient renal dialysis services. For more information, please read our previous article titled “Phase 2 of Healthcare Services Act 2020 comes into force on 26 June 2023: Licensing of teleconsultation services by doctors and dentists”.
Phase 3, the final phase, which was implemented from 18 December 2023, involved long-term care services and other specialised and new services. The PHMCA is repealed in Phrase 3.

Subsidiary legislation

Various subsidiary legislation also came into force on 18 December 2023, including the Healthcare Services (Nursing Home Service) Regulations 2023, which cover areas such as licensing matters, requirements relating to personnel and patient care, infection control, incident management, and emergency preparedness.

The full suite of subsidiary legislation issued is available on Singapore Statutes Online sso.agc.gov.sg, or by clicking here.

MOH webpage on HCSA

The Ministry of Health (“MOH”) has published a webpage titled “Healthcare Services Act” which sets out information on the HCSA, including the following:

Reference materials

The following materials are available on Singapore Statutes Online sso.agc.gov.sg:

tham.hsuhsien@agasia.law