The Healthcare Services (Amendment) Bill (“Bill“) was introduced in Parliament on 6 February 2023. This follows a public consultation conducted by the Ministry of Health (“MOH“) from 12 October 2022 to 11 November 2022 to seek feedback on the proposed amendments to the Healthcare Services Act (“HCSA“) aimed at, inter alia, enhancing the regulatory regime governing healthcare services and ensuring greater clarity and transparency in healthcare services advertising. The HCSA amendments are targeted for implementation in June 2023.
To recap, the HCSA was enacted in 2020 to replace the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act (“PHMCA“) to better safeguard the safety and well-being of patients amidst the changing healthcare environment in Singapore and the evolving development of innovative healthcare services.
The HCSA is being implemented progressively in three phases, with Phase 1 completed in January 2022. In its press release dated 12 October 2022 when it launched the public consultation, MOH had indicated that the implementation would be completed in end-2023 when the PHMCA will be repealed.
This Update provides a very broad overview of the key features of the Bill. Where there are specific questions and issues, these may not be covered in this Update but you are encouraged to reach out to the contacts stated herein.
For more information, click here to read the full Legal Update.
