A&E versus urgent care clinics in Singapore: where to go and what it costs

Singapore’s emergency departments see a large share of patients who did not need to be there, and those patients wait longest and pay a flat fee for the privilege. This entry explains how triage works, what an A&E visit costs, what the alternatives are and when each is the right door.

The four doors

Emergency department (A&E). Every public general hospital runs one, open around the clock: SGH, TTSH, NUH, CGH, KTPH, Ng Teng Fong, Sengkang and Woodlands, with KKH for children and for women’s emergencies. They handle anything, prioritise by severity, and charge a flat attendance fee.

Urgent care centre. A smaller number of public-sector urgent care centres treat conditions that need same-day care but not resuscitation — cuts needing stitches, sprains and simple fractures, moderate asthma, high fever in adults, urinary infections. They run extended hours, have X-ray and basic laboratory access, and charge less than A&E.

24-hour and extended-hours clinics. Private GP clinics that stay open overnight, mostly in the private hospital campuses and larger housing estates. They handle what a GP handles, at night, at a premium.

Polyclinics and GPs. Daytime, for anything that can wait until morning.

How A&E triage works

On arrival a nurse assigns a priority level.

Level	Meaning	Typical wait to a doctor
P1	Life-threatening: cardiac arrest, major trauma, stroke, severe breathing difficulty	Immediate
P2	Major emergency: chest pain, serious fractures, severe bleeding	Minutes
P3	Minor emergency: sprains, cuts, fever, vomiting	One to several hours
P4	Non-emergency: conditions a clinic could treat	Longest, after all others

The wait for P3 and P4 is the wait everyone complains about. It is structural: the department is built to treat P1 and P2 first, and a busy night can push P4 waits past four hours.

What an A&E visit costs

Public hospital emergency departments charge a flat attendance fee that covers the consultation and basic treatment; investigations, procedures and medication are billed on top. The fee is set by residency.

Patient	Attendance fee, indicative
Citizen	About S$150–170
Permanent resident	Somewhat higher
Foreigner	Roughly double the citizen rate

The fee is the same at P1 and P4, and MediSave cannot be used for it unless the visit ends in admission, in which case the whole episode becomes an inpatient bill. Private hospital emergency departments — Mount Elizabeth, Gleneagles, Raffles and others — charge a higher attendance fee and bill every item at private rates.

What urgent care costs

Public urgent care centres charge an attendance fee roughly half the A&E figure for citizens, with subsidies for CHAS card holders and the Pioneer and Merdeka generations. Investigations are subsidised at polyclinic-equivalent rates. A 24-hour private clinic charges a night consultation fee typically between S$80 and S$150 before medication.

When to go where

Call 995 for an ambulance, or go straight to A&E, for chest pain, stroke symptoms, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding, a major injury, seizure, a suspected overdose, or a child who is limp, blue or not responding. Do not drive yourself with chest pain.

Go to an urgent care centre or 24-hour clinic for cuts that need stitches, sprains and suspected simple fractures, high fever without red-flag signs, vomiting and diarrhoea with dehydration, moderate asthma, urinary infection, minor burns and animal bites.

Wait for the polyclinic or GP for colds, mild fever, rashes without fever, chronic pain flare-ups and prescription refills.

Ambulance: 995 and 1777

995 is the emergency line; the ambulance takes you to the nearest appropriate public emergency department, not the one you prefer, and the service is free for genuine emergencies. Non-emergency use is charged. 1777 is the non-emergency ambulance line, a paid service for transfers and cases that need transport but not urgent care.

Private ambulance operators serve the private hospitals and charge per trip.

After the visit

A&E gives a discharge summary and, where needed, a referral to a specialist outpatient clinic at the same hospital; the referral is at the subsidised rate for citizens if the A&E visit was subsidised. An urgent care centre refers to the polyclinic or a hospital clinic. Keep the bill and the summary: if you later claim from an insurer for a related admission, pre-hospitalisation cover often includes the A&E visit within a stated window.

Frequently asked questions

Can I choose which hospital the ambulance takes me to?

No. The 995 ambulance goes to the nearest emergency department suited to the case. You can transfer afterwards, at your own cost, once stable.

Is a child’s fever an emergency?

Usually not. A child with fever who is drinking, alert and comforting is a polyclinic or GP case. Fever with a stiff neck, a rash that does not fade under pressure, breathing difficulty, a fit, or in an infant under three months is an emergency — go to KKH or the nearest A&E.

Does MediShield Life cover an A&E visit?

Not on its own. Emergency attendance is outpatient. If the visit leads to admission, the emergency charges become part of the inpatient bill, which MediShield Life and Integrated Shield Plans cover.

Why did I wait four hours at A&E?

Because you were triaged P3 or P4 and the department treated every P1 and P2 that arrived first. For the same condition an urgent care centre or a 24-hour clinic would have seen you in under an hour.

Check also

Hospitals in Singapore: the specialty index — which hospital runs which emergency and specialist services
Pediatrics hospitals in Singapore — children’s emergency care and where it sits
MediSave and MediShield Life explained — what happens to the bill if the visit becomes an admission

Where this index comes from

Triage categories and attendance fees are from the public hospitals’ published emergency department pages and fee schedules; urgent care and ambulance information from the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Ministry of Health. Fees are given as bands because they are revised; the hospital’s fee page is the figure of record.