Neurology in Singapore: two campuses, and what a consultation costs

Neurology in Singapore has one national institute, a set of general hospital departments that feed it, and a private sector that grew around the same consultants. The route in depends on whether the problem is an emergency — stroke, seizure, sudden weakness — or a clinic condition such as migraine, Parkinson’s disease or neuropathy. This entry lists the ten providers that carry most of the work and how each is reached.

What decides the outcome

For stroke, minutes. Clot-dissolving treatment and clot retrieval work within a few hours of onset. Call 995; the ambulance goes to the nearest hospital equipped for acute stroke, and every public general hospital is. Driving to a preferred hospital across the island costs the time that decides the outcome.

For everything else, the right subspecialty. Epilepsy, movement disorders, neuromuscular disease, headache, neuro-immunology and dementia are separate clinics at the national institute. A general neurology referral is triaged into one; asking the referring doctor to name the condition gets you there faster.

Imaging access. MRI waiting time at public hospitals runs weeks for routine requests. Private centres scan within days at private rates.

National Neuroscience Institute — TTSH campus

Start with the thing that causes the most wasted journeys: NNI runs at two campuses, one at Tan Tock Seng and one at Singapore General. It is one institute with two addresses on opposite sides of the city, so the only question that matters when a referral is made is which one it names.

Its published clinical specialties are neurology, neuroradiology, neurosurgery and psychology, with a neurodiagnostic laboratory and a neuroscience clinical laboratory attached. Two named centres sit alongside them: a Memory and Cognitive Disorder Centre and a Supportive and Palliative Care Centre.

What a consultation costs. Subsidised, a first visit is S$36.00 to S$84.00 for a citizen and S$90.00 for a permanent resident. Without the subsidy the same first visit runs S$163.50 with an associate consultant and S$225.00 with a senior consultant, rising to S$253.50 for a non-resident.

One fee tier here is worth noticing because almost nowhere else publishes it. NNI prices a longer consultation separately: S$245.25 to S$337.50 for a first visit, against S$163.50 to S$225.00 for a standard private one. Every other band on this page prices seniority. This one prices time.

That is a sensible thing to publish in a specialty where the history is the diagnostic test — for a first seizure, a movement disorder or a memory complaint, the appointment genuinely needs longer. If you are booking privately for something that will take telling, it is worth asking which tier you are being booked under before the visit rather than discovering it on the bill.

National Neuroscience Institute — SGH campus

The Outram campus sits on the Singapore General Hospital site and serves the SingHealth cluster. The same institute, the same fee schedule, a different half of the island.

One published claim, and its exact scope. NNI states that its neurosurgery department is the largest in Singapore. That is worth knowing and worth not over-reading. Neurosurgery is not neurology: one operates, the other manages conditions like epilepsy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and migraine, most of which never reach an operating theatre.

So this entry does not claim NNI dominates neurology the way the skin centre dominates dermatology or the eye centre dominates ophthalmology. Those centres publish a share of patients. This one publishes a fact about one of its departments, and nothing was found stating a share for neurology as a whole.

The practical reading: if your problem is likely surgical — a tumour, an aneurysm, a spinal cord compression — the institute publishes a reason to think it does more of that work than anywhere else here. If your problem is medical neurology, that claim does not apply to it, and the hospital neurology services further down this page are genuine alternatives rather than consolation prizes.

National University Hospital — Division of Neurology

NUH’s neurology division is the NUHS cluster’s centre, with documented programmes in stroke, epilepsy, neuromuscular disease and neuro-immunology, and paediatric neurology through the children’s hospital. Western polyclinics and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital refer here.

Changi General Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Sengkang General Hospital

Each runs a neurology service with an acute stroke pathway, general neurology clinics and inpatient care, referring complex cases to NNI or NUH. For a routine referral — headache, neuropathy, a first seizure without complications — these are the shorter queues.

KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital — Paediatric Neurology

KKH runs the national paediatric neurology service: childhood epilepsy, developmental and neuromuscular conditions, and paediatric stroke. Children’s cases from any part of the country are referred here or to NUH.

Mount Elizabeth Novena — Neuroscience practices

Mount Elizabeth Novena hosts the largest cluster of private neurologists and neurosurgeons in Singapore, many of whom trained at NNI, with on-site MRI, an intensive care unit and interventional neuroradiology. Private rate, with appointments within days.

Gleneagles Hospital and Mount Elizabeth Orchard

Both older Parkway campuses house private neurology and neurosurgery practices with the same facilities and fee structure as Novena. Choice between the three is usually by doctor rather than by hospital.

Raffles Neuroscience Centre

Raffles Hospital’s in-house neurology and neurosurgery service, with published fees and a same-system referral path from any Raffles clinic. Scope covers stroke follow-up, epilepsy, movement disorders and spine.

Public versus private, in practice

Rehabilitation after stroke is where the choice of hospital matters least and the choice of pathway most: every acute hospital transfers stroke patients to a community hospital for daily therapy, and the community hospital, not the acute one, decides how much function comes back. Ask about the rehabilitation plan on the day of admission, not the day of discharge.

	Public, subsidised	Public, private rate	Private hospital
Routine first appointment	6–12 weeks	1–3 weeks	Days
MRI brain, indicative	S$300–600	S$900–1,400	S$1,200–2,000
Consultation, indicative	S$40–60	S$120–200	S$180–350
Acute stroke admission, 5 nights, indicative	S$3,000–7,000	S$15,000–25,000	S$25,000–45,000
Deep brain stimulation, epilepsy surgery	NNI, NUH only	NNI, NUH only	Selected surgeons

Bands are rounded from public fee schedules, the Ministry of Health’s bill sizes and private price guides; confirm the current figure with the provider.

What a referral actually looks like

For stroke and other emergencies there is no referral: 995 or the nearest emergency department. For clinic conditions, a polyclinic or CHAS GP referral gives the subsidised rate and lands at the cluster’s neurology service — NNI for central and SingHealth patients, NUH for the west, KTPH for the north. Ask the referrer to name the suspected condition so the referral is triaged to the right subspecialty clinic.

Frequently asked questions

Which hospital is best for stroke in Singapore?

The nearest one. Every public general hospital runs an acute stroke pathway, and the ambulance takes you to the closest. Rehabilitation afterwards can be at any hospital or community hospital you choose.

How long is the wait for a neurologist at a public hospital?

Six to twelve weeks for a routine subsidised referral; days to two weeks if marked urgent — new seizures, progressive weakness, suspected tumour.

Does MediSave cover an MRI?

Outpatient scans are generally not MediSave-claimable. A scan done during an admission is part of the inpatient bill and claimable within limits.

Is NNI a hospital?

It is an institute with clinics and beds inside TTSH and SGH rather than a standalone hospital. Appointments are booked with NNI; admissions are to the host hospital.

Check also

• Hospitals in Singapore: the specialty index — referral routes for every specialty
• A&E versus urgent care clinics — what happens in the first hour of a stroke
• Cardiology hospitals in Singapore — where atrial fibrillation, the commonest stroke cause, is managed

Where this index comes from

Scopes are from the National Neuroscience Institute’s and each hospital’s published service pages. Fee and bill bands are rounded from public fee schedules, the Ministry of Health’s bill size publications and private hospital price guides. Waiting times are those the hospitals publish for routine and urgent referrals.