As patients move between GPs, specialists and community services, the new Bill seeks to reduce blind spots in care by requiring providers to share key medical information securely.

The Health Information Bill (HIB), passed in Parliament on Monday (12 January 2026), is set to govern how key health information is shared across Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem, with the aim of improving care coordination.

The Bill comes as Singapore grapples with a rapidly ageing population and rising life expectancy, which have increased the prevalence of chronic conditions. These trends, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said, have raised the need for sustained and coordinated care across different healthcare providers. At the same time, healthcare delivery has been shifting away from acute hospitals towards the community, with more services provided closer to patients’ homes.

Key pillars of the HIB

Addressing critical gaps

As pointed out by MOH, national programmes such as Healthier SG and Age Well SG, along with initiatives such as Home Personal Care and Mobile Inpatient Care @ Home, have strengthened community-based care. As a result, patients now receive treatment from a wider range of providers, including hospitals, GP clinics, community hospitals, dialysis centres and home medical services.

However, the ministry acknowledged, with care spread across multiple settings, coordination has become more critical. The National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) was developed to address this need, enabling patient summary records to be shared across the public healthcare system. In recent years, most GPs have joined NEHR under Healthier SG, while private hospitals have either joined or are in the process of doing so.

Whie this is so, some segments of the healthcare sector remain outside the NEHR. These include private specialist clinics, where patients’ key records may not be accessible when they return to their regular GPs. Other gaps exist among clinical and radiological laboratories, as well as dental clinics. While these providers make up a smaller share of the ecosystem, the ministry noted that such gaps can increase the risk of medication errors, delayed treatment and duplicate tests or procedures.

The HIB seek...