Drivers will have to access different parts of the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) campus through a new network of roads, with three separate routes to specific areas.

There is currently one interconnected network that loops through the hospital’s campus.

From Dec 29, drivers who want to access the current National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) building or SGH Blocks 2, 3 or 4 are advised to use either Kampong Bahru Road or Jalan Bukit Merah to enter the hospital campus via the southern end of College Road.

To get to Academia, the Singapore National Eye Centre, the Diabetes and Metabolism Centre, and Blocks 5, 6 or 7, drivers should use Outram Road and enter the hospital campus via the northern end of College Road.

The new road network is to facilitate smoother traffic flow, with the opening of Outram Community Hospital last Saturday and the construction of buildings such as the new NCCS, Emergency Medicine Building, as well as the Elective Care Centre and National Dental Centre Singapore.

“While the current network is integrated, it is not sized adequately to cope with the traffic flow,” said Mr Kevin Low, chief operating officer of facilities and infrastructure development at SingHealth, at a media briefing yesterday. “The new road network has straight thoroughfares that will serve the campus with the three routes.”

Since Dec 2, commuters have been served by shuttle buses plying two routes to different parts of the campus.

Previously, the buses plied only one route, which looped around SGH, and they took about 40 minutes to complete their journey.

The two new routes now take about 35 minutes and 20 minutes to complete.

There will be no change to the routes for ambulances and vehicles ferrying patients in need of urgent medical attention, which should use Jalan Bukit Merah for the accident and emergency department.