Orthopaedics in Singapore: what a knee replacement costs by ward

Orthopaedic surgery is the largest surgical specialty in Singapore’s public hospitals by procedure count, and the one where the gap between a subsidised bill and a private one is widest. This entry lists the ten hospitals that do most of the work, what each is documented to concentrate on, and what a knee or hip replacement costs at each level of the system.

What decides the outcome

Volume in the specific procedure. Every hospital here does general orthopaedics. Fewer do high volumes of a given operation — anterior hip replacement, revision knees, complex spine, paediatric deformity. Ask the surgeon how many of your procedure the unit did last year; the public hospitals publish some of these figures.

Whether it is elective or trauma. A fracture from a fall goes by ambulance to the nearest public emergency department and is fixed there. Choice exists for elective work: joint replacement, ligament reconstruction, spine surgery for chronic pain.

Ward class. The same operation at the same public hospital produces a very different bill in a subsidised C or B2 ward than in an A ward. The surgeon may be the same; the subsidy is not.

Singapore General Hospital — Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

SGH runs the largest orthopaedic department in the country, organised into subspecialty services: adult reconstruction (hip and knee), spine, sports, hand, foot and ankle, tumour, and trauma. It is the SingHealth referral point for revision joint replacement and bone tumours. Waiting time for elective subsidised joint replacement is the longest of the public hospitals because the queue is national.

Tan Tock Seng Hospital — Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

TTSH holds the central region’s trauma load and a large elective joint replacement programme, with a documented emphasis on hip fracture care in older patients and a geriatric fracture pathway. Its sports service and spine service are sizeable. For central-region residents this is the default subsidised destination.

National University Hospital — University Orthopaedics

NUH’s orthopaedic cluster covers the west with subspecialty services in spine, hip and knee, sports, hand and reconstructive microsurgery, and paediatric orthopaedics through the children’s hospital. It is the NUHS referral centre for complex spine deformity and limb reconstruction.

Changi General Hospital

CGH serves the east with a general orthopaedic department and a sports medicine centre that handles a large share of the cluster’s ligament and cartilage work. Elective waits are typically shorter than SGH for the same procedure.

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital

KTPH covers the north with orthopaedic surgery and a documented focus on osteoporotic fracture management and community rehabilitation links. Complex cases are referred within the National Healthcare Group to TTSH.

Sengkang General Hospital

SKH, the newest SingHealth general hospital, runs a full orthopaedic department serving the north-east, with joint replacement and trauma services and shorter elective queues than the older hospitals in the cluster.

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

KKH handles children’s orthopaedics for SingHealth: developmental hip dysplasia, clubfoot, scoliosis, limb length problems and paediatric fractures needing surgery. Referral is from polyclinics, GPs or the children’s emergency department.

Mount Elizabeth Hospitals (Orchard and Novena)

The Mount Elizabeth campuses host the largest concentration of private orthopaedic practices in Singapore, including several surgeons who trained and practised in the public hospitals above. Joint replacement, sports surgery and spine are all available; robotic-assisted knee replacement is marketed at both campuses. Fees are set per surgeon within Ministry of Health benchmarks.

Gleneagles Hospital

Gleneagles’ orthopaedic practices concentrate on sports injury and joint replacement, and the hospital markets itself for international patients. Expect the same private fee structure as Mount Elizabeth.

Raffles Hospital — Raffles Orthopaedic Centre

Raffles runs orthopaedics as an in-house specialist centre with published fees, which makes the total bill easier to estimate in advance than at hospitals where each surgeon prices independently. Scope covers joint replacement, spine, sports and hand surgery.

Public versus private, in practice

Published typical bill ranges for a primary total knee replacement on one knee, procedure code SB810K, by the setting the patient was treated in.

Setting	Typical bill range
Public, ward C	S$5,948–9,565
Public, ward B2	S$6,000–9,876
Public, ward B1	S$21,428–25,241
Public, ward A	S$23,390–28,674
Public, day surgery, subsidised	S$6,113–11,136
Public, day surgery, unsubsidised	S$22,670–26,586
Private hospital, inpatient	S$36,895–48,590

This table was close before, and that is worth saying. The previous version gave C as S$5,000–9,000 against a published S$5,948–9,565, and private as S$30,000–50,000 against S$36,895–48,590. Compare that with the urology and ENT entries in this archive, where the private column was out by half. Not every unsourced band is badly wrong — but you could not tell which was which until someone checked, which is the entire argument for checking.

What it lacked was not accuracy so much as traceability: no code, no date, nothing a reader could verify. It has all three now.

One column was dropped. The old table gave a typical length of stay in days for each setting. No published source was found for those figures, so they are gone rather than kept because they looked reasonable.

Note also the day-surgery rows, which the old table did not have. A subsidised day-surgery knee replacement lands in the same range as a subsidised inpatient one, while the unsubsidised day-surgery figure sits close to a B1 stay. If your surgeon offers a day-surgery pathway, the saving is in the days, not automatically in the bill.

Subsidy for citizens depends on means-testing; permanent residents get lower subsidies and foreigners none. MediSave can be used up to the published surgical withdrawal limit for the procedure code, and MediShield Life or an Integrated Shield Plan covers the rest according to the ward class the plan is sized for. Verify the current figures with the hospital’s business office before surgery; the bill-size pages are updated periodically.

What a referral actually looks like

For a subsidised elective consultation, a polyclinic doctor refers you to the orthopaedic clinic of the hospital serving your region. You will usually see a registrar first, then the consultant if surgery is likely. For private-rate appointments, any GP can refer, and private hospital practices take direct bookings.

Trauma bypasses all of this. If you call 995, the ambulance takes you to the nearest appropriate emergency department, and the surgeon on call operates. You can transfer to a private hospital afterwards, at your own cost.

Sports injuries and the wait question

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is the procedure where the wait matters most to the patient, because the knee is unstable until it is fixed. Public subsidised queues for elective ACL surgery run one to several months; private surgery is often within two weeks. Physiotherapy before surgery is standard either way, and a public hospital can start it while you wait.

Frequently asked questions

Which hospital is best for knee replacement in Singapore?

By published volume, SGH and TTSH do the most. By waiting time, the newer public hospitals and any private hospital are faster. Outcome data at the individual surgeon level is not published, so ask the surgeon directly about their annual count and complication rate.

Can I choose my surgeon on the subsidised route?

No. Subsidised patients are seen by the team on duty, and the consultant in charge is assigned. Choosing a named surgeon means the private rate, in a public or private hospital.

How much of a knee replacement does MediShield Life cover?

MediShield Life is sized for a subsidised B2 or C ward bill. After the deductible and co-insurance, it covers most of a subsidised bill and a small fraction of a private one. An Integrated Shield Plan matched to the ward you choose closes the gap.

Is robotic knee replacement worth paying for?

Robotic assistance is marketed at private hospitals and available at some public ones. Published trials show more precise alignment; long-term outcome differences against a skilled conventional surgeon are small. It adds to the bill and is rarely subsidised.

Check also

• Hospitals in Singapore: the specialty index — referral routes for every specialty on this site
• Cardiology hospitals in Singapore — relevant when you need cardiac clearance before joint surgery
• Pediatrics hospitals in Singapore — where children’s fractures and deformities are treated

Where this index comes from

The bill ranges were read on 24 September 2026 from the Ministry of Health’s bill information for procedure code SB810K, using the published typical bill range for each setting shown. They are snapshotted alongside the entry so a later check can report which have moved.

No figure here comes from a private price guide. The length-of-stay column that had no source at all was removed rather than retained.

This round verified the bill ranges only. The department descriptions and the stated waiting times were not re-sourced, so the date applies to the figures and not to the prose around them.