Minister for Health names new chairperson of Catholic Welfare Medifund committee

The Minister for Health has appointed Mr Lee Jeremy Adrian as chairperson of the Catholic Welfare Services Nursing Home Medifund Committee, for a term running from 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2028, both dates inclusive. The same notice revokes the appointment of Mr Lee Hwee Khiam Anthony as a member of that committee with effect from 1 September 2026. Both decisions are published in Government Gazette Notification No. 5386, first published on 16 September 2026.

The appointment was made in exercise of the powers conferred by section 14 of the Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes Act 2000, the statute that governs the Medifund endowment and the committees that disburse it. The Catholic Welfare Services Nursing Home Medifund Committee was itself constituted under the Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes (Medifund Committees) Order 2015 (G.N. No. S 361/2015). Medifund committees sit at approved healthcare institutions and decide applications from needy patients who cannot meet their medical bills.

What the notice changes

• Mr Lee Jeremy Adrian is appointed chairperson, from 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2028 (both dates inclusive).
• Mr Lee Hwee Khiam Anthony has his appointment as a member revoked, with effect from 1 September 2026.
• Gazette Notification No. 458, published on 14 February 2024, is cancelled insofar as it relates to Mr Lee Hwee Khiam Anthony, with effect from 1 September 2026.
• The legal basis is section 14 of the Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes Act 2000.
• The committee is appointed under the Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes (Medifund Committees) Order 2015 (G.N. No. S 361/2015).

A parallel change at another nursing home

The same gazette carries a companion notice, No. 5387, applying the same section 14 powers to a second nursing home committee. Dr Ho Yin Fong is appointed a member and the chairperson of The Salvation Army, Peacehaven Nursing Home Medifund Committee from 1 October 2026 to 30 June 2027, both dates inclusive. The appointment of Mr Tan Bee Yit as a member of that committee is revoked with effect from 1 October 2026, and Gazette Notification No. 1378 of 22 May 2023 is cancelled insofar as it relates to him.

Committee roster widened weeks earlier

Two subsidiary instruments made on 28 August 2026 and brought into force on 1 September 2026 reshaped the same committee structure:

• The Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes (Medifund Committees) (Amendment No. 5) Order 2026 (S 574/2026) inserted “(4) Lentor Health Nursing Home (Hougang)” into item 52, Part 1 of the Schedule to the Medifund Committees Order 2015.
• The Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes (Approved Institutions) (Amendment No. 5) Notification 2026 (S 573/2026) inserted item 217, “Lentor Health Nursing Home (Hougang)”, into the Schedule to the Approved Institutions Notification 2016.
  Both were signed by Lai Wei Lin, Permanent Secretary (Policy and Development), Ministry of Health.

Why it matters

Medifund committees are the bodies that decide whether a patient at an approved institution receives help with medical bills, so who chairs them and who sits on them is a governance question rather than a formality. The Catholic Welfare Services notice replaces the committee’s leadership and removes a member in a single instrument, effective from the start of September, while the Peacehaven notice does the same from October. Read together with the August amendments that added a new nursing home to the Medifund roster, the gazette shows the Ministry of Health actively reworking the committees that administer the endowment.

Source: Republic of Singapore Government Gazette, No. 5386, 16 September 2026, Notices under other Acts (official reference: G.N. No. 5386).