A technical issue caused a disruption to Singapore’s public healthcare system on October 13, temporarily affecting multiple patient services across all three public healthcare clusters. The outage lasted approximately nine and a half hours before services were fully restored by 4:37 p.m., according to the national health technology agency Synapxe.
The disruption began at around 7:10 a.m., when a network connectivity problem impacted systems used by the National Healthcare Group (NHG Health), the National University Health System (NUHS), and SingHealth. Affected services included appointment booking through call centers, visitor registration, billing inquiries, and other patient-facing functions. Synapxe emphasized there is no indication that the incident was related to a cyberattack, and investigations into the cause are ongoing.
During the outage, patients and visitors at public healthcare institutions experienced longer waiting times for certain services. Synapxe and the healthcare clusters worked closely to restore operations as quickly as possible and apologized for any inconvenience caused.
NHG Health reported that while call center lines and appointment booking systems were affected, patient care remained uninterrupted. Its institutions activated downtime procedures that enabled emergency care, inpatient services, surgeries, medical tests, and scans to continue with minimal disruption. Medication delivery through its pharmacies also remained available. NHG Health staff and volunteers provided additional support on site to assist with registration and payment processes. The cluster includes Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Yishun Community Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Woodlands Hospital, and 10 polyclinics.
Within NUHS, hospitals such as the National University Hospital (NUH), Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Alexandra Hospital, and eight polyclinics experienced technical issues affecting multiple systems. The cluster indicated that patient care remained a priority despite longer wait times and asked for public understanding. NUH had noted a system downtime starting at around 10:30 a.m.
SingHealth hospitals, including Singapore General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, and a number of polyclinics, also reported disruptions affecting outpatient appointment services, visitor registration, and billing inquiries. Services were gradually restored through the afternoon.
Additionally, Singapore's 24-hour mental health helpline, mindline.sg, encountered issues with its hotline and WhatsApp service from 8 a.m. but confirmed full restoration by noon.
Officials affirmed that clinical services continued to operate safely throughout the disruption period. The incident highlights ongoing challenges in managing complex healthtech infrastructures, with authorities maintaining efforts to ensure system resilience and service continuity across Singapore’s public healthcare sector.