Mr Khaw told a gathering at KKH's first Formal Lecture and Dinner at the Ritz Carlton last night, that he is partly to blame.

As KKH's chief executive officer in 1990, he was involved in planning the current hospital, which involved deciding whether Singapore needed a maternity hospital.

'We made our share of mistakes. We didn't fully anticipate the significant drop in birth rates.

'In particular, we failed to anticipate that Medisave would lead to more births in private rather than public hospitals,' he said.

With all that spare capacity, KKH has to do one of two things, he said. One would be to try to regain the baby delivery market.

From a high of almost 40,000 babies born there in 1996, earning it a mention in the Guinness Book of Records, the hospital last year delivered just 14,000, or one in three born here.

'This means fighting with the private hospitals for a share of a shrinking pie. What for? As a government, we should be pleased that Singaporeans are finding private obstetric care affordable.

'Then our limited resources can be redeployed to serve more pressing needs, like oncology and geriatrics, where patients may not be able to afford private hospital care.'

At the same time, he added, women's needs are growing, and this is contributing to the crowding in general hospitals.

So KKH has decided to take the other route, to be like the Brigham & Women's Hospital of Boston. That hospital focuses on every aspect of women's care, and providing cutting edge treatments for them.

In 1847 it was the first in the world to offer anaesthesia during childbirth, had the first successful fertilisation of a human ovum in a test tube in 1944. It also performed the first successful human organ transplant in 1954.

KKH chief executive officer Ivy Ng said the hospital will not be starting from scratch in this quest.

In the 1950s its Dr Benjamin Sheares pioneered a new way to construct a vagina for women born without one. And Professor S. Ratnam delivered the first Asian baby to be conceived through in-vitro fertilisation in 1983.

Over the next few months, it will add or expand services, starting with orthopaedic, breast, ear, nose and throat, psychiatric and aesthetic services this year.

It will also have an eye department and start a clinic catering to teenagers' special needs soon after.

'KKH is used to remaking itself and thriving,' said the minister, pointing out that it started nearly 150 years ago as a general hospital. Since then it has been a hospital for seamen, one for paupers and, now, for women and children.

'It was one of the great institutions before and has what it'll take to be among the very best in future.'