New Health Information Bill in Singapore moves to close care gaps as patients navigate more healthcare providers

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 seeks to address these gaps by requiring all licensed healthcare providers to share key patient information with NEHR. This includes data such as allergies, vaccinations, diagnoses, medications, laboratory test results, radiological images and discharge summaries. The Bill also allows for the sharing of certain non-NEHR health information to support community health initiatives and community-based care.

With more complete records available across providers, patients are expected to benefit from better coordinated care, improved quality of care and lower healthcare costs.

Safeguards governing access to NEHR

The Bill also introduces legislative safeguards to strengthen existing technical controls, including regular audits to detect inappropriate access.

In general, access to NEHR is limited to patient care purposes. Only healthcare providers and professionals directly involved in a patient’s care will be allowed to view their records. This includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals.

Access to NEHR for employment or insurance purposes is prohibited, except for a limited list of medical examinations required or permitted under written law.

By default, patients’ key health information will be contributed to NEHR and made accessible to their healthcare providers to support continuity of care. Patients will be able to view which healthcare providers have accessed their records through the HealthHub app and report any unauthorised access. Those with privacy concerns may also place access restrictions so that only selected providers can view their information.

Even when access restrictions are applied, essential information such as allergies and vaccination records will remain accessible, to reduce the risk of unsafe prescriptions or immunisation when patients visit a new provider. In medical emergencies, doctors will be able to activate a ‘break glass’ feature to access records despite restrictions, allowing timely care where lives may be at risk.

Sharing non-NEHR information for community care

Currently, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) shares data with community care providers to support outreach and befriending services for vulnerable seniors. The Bill provides an additional legal basis for sharing health information to strengthen national health programmes and enable more proactive community support.

Under programmes such as Healthier SG and Age Well SG, healthcare clusters will be able to share contact information of vulnerable seniors with AIC. This will allow AIC to reach out and help connect individuals with appropriate healthcare providers and community-based services based on their needs.

Protecting health information

Healthcare providers that contribute to or access NEHR, as well as entities involved in sharing non-NEHR health information, will be required to meet cybersecurity and data security standards. These include safeguards around the storage, access, use and sharing of health information, as well as requirements to notify the Ministry of Health of confirmed data breaches and cybersecurity incidents in a timely manner.

Implementation timeline

To give healthcare providers sufficient time to prepare, the HIB is intended to take effect from early 2027. Training resources, guidance and funding support will be provided to help providers and healthcare professionals strengthen their cybersecurity and data protection practices.

Once implemented, the Bill is expected to play a key role in transforming healthcare delivery by enabling better information-sharing across the system, supporting more coordinated care and improving outcomes for patients.

Comments by SMS Tan Kiat How

In his closing speech at the reading, Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Health said the HIB is intended to support continuity of care as patients move across different healthcare settings, while strengthening safeguards over how health data is accessed and used.

He reiterated that the Bill addresses concerns raised by members across four key areas:

• Safeguards for patients
• Obligations and support measures for healthcare providers
• Support measures for healthcare professionals
• Sharing of non-NEHR health information

These include tighter controls on access to the NEHR, stronger penalties for unauthorised access, and clear prohibitions against using NEHR information for employment or insurance purposes.

SMS Tan added that MOH intends for the Bill to take effect from early 2027 to ensure healthcare providers have sufficient time to familiarise themselves with the HIB’’s requirements and to strengthen their cybersecurity and data security posture.

He said guidance materials, training resources and dedicated support channels will be made available to support the transition, with MOH considering the facts of each case carefully should there be challenges in complying with the requirements.

Concluding, SMS Tan said:

We will work with and support healthcare providers and healthcare professionals in achieving this goal.

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Lead image / Ministry of Health Singapore

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