A NEW and bigger heart centre will be built by 2011 to cope with the spiralling number of heart patients among Singapore's greying population.
The existing National Heart Centre (NHC), which has been sited in the grounds of the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) since 1994, has seen a doubling of patient numbers in that time - from 42,000 to 85,000 last year.
These numbers mean heart problems are the cause of one in four deaths here - the No. 2 killer behind cancer.
The NHC is already bursting at the seams, and the growth in patient numbers is not expected to let up, said director Koh Tian Hai.
The new centre, also to be sited near SGH, will have a floor area of 30,000sqm, making it almost six times the NHC's current 5,200sqm.
Work is expected to start in early 2008. The centre will remain focused on outpatient care. Those who need to be hospitalised will continue to be warded at SGH.
Funding for the new centre has not received the nod yet, but Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan went ahead and announced plans for it yesterday, telling The Straits Times it was 'what we think we need to do over the next five-year term'.
He was one of three ministers who presented their plans and priorities yesterday, as part of the Addendum to the President's Address to Parliament on Thursday.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan and Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim were the other two ministers who fleshed out President SR Nathan's speech, which painted in broad strokes the Government's direction for the coming five years.
It will take four days for the other ministries to present their addenda.
Yesterday, Mr Khaw said building the new heart centre was part of long-term plans to redevelop SGH's Outram campus. Already in the works are the new Duke Medical School, to be ready by 2009, and a new pathology laboratory.
In his ministry's addendum, Mr Khaw also addressed the pressure on hospital ward space. He will direct public hospitals to increase bed numbers until the new general hospital in Yishun opens in 2009. The extra beds will then be phased out.
The National University Hospital (NUH), however, will have a permanent expansion in its number of beds to mop up the growing demand for in-patient care in the west.
Mr Khaw added that he foresaw a long-term need for about 100 more subsidised beds at NUH, with the additional space for them likely to come from redeveloping some low-rise buildings at NUH.
But he said these low-rise buildings would not be demolished until the 550-bed Yishun hospital is ready.
When the staff at Alexandra Hospital move over to run the Yishun one, NUH will be able to take over the vacated Alexandra Hospital to house patients while its building expansion takes place, he said.