Our global healthcare industry team continues to highlight how regions around the world have quickly adapted to providing telehealth services following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In Singapore, telehealth providers are mainly focused on providing remote telemedicine and/or on-demand house call services.
To date, there is no overarching legislation governing the telehealth sector in Singapore. In January 2020, Singapore’s Ministry of Health announced the telemedicine sector would be licensed in the upcoming Healthcare Services Act by the end of 2022. To manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Infocomm Media Development Authority and Enterprise Singapore expanded the range of preapproved teleconsultation digital solutions in May 2020 and announced grants and subsidies to encourage small- and medium-sized healthcare providers to adopt these solutions.
Until the implementation of the upcoming Healthcare Services Act, telehealth and telemedicine providers in Singapore should take note of a number of issues and guidelines, highlighted in this LawFlash.