Nursing Homes and Maternity Homes Registration Act

(CHAPTER 210)

(Original Enactment: Ordinance 5 of 1959)

REVISED EDITION 1985

(30th March 1987)

An Act for the registration of persons maintaining or managing nursing homes and maternity homes and for purposes connected therewith.

[8th May 1959]

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Nursing Homes and Maternity Homes Registration Act.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“Director” means the Director of Medical Services;

“home” means a maternity home or a nursing home;

“maternity home” means any premises used or intended to be used for the reception of pregnant women or of women immediately after childbirth and includes a hospital so used or intended to be so used;

“nursing home” means any premises other than a maternity home used or intended to be used for the reception of, and the provision of nursing for persons suffering or convalescing from any sickness, injury or infirmity and includes a hospital so used or intended to be so used;

“register” means the register kept of persons registered in respect of specified homes under this Act;

“registered medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the provisions of any written law for the time being in force relating to the registration of medical practitioners;

“registered midwife” means a woman registered as a midwife under the provisions of any written law for the time being in force relating to the registration of midwives;

“registered nurse” means a person registered as a nurse under the provisions of any written law for the time being in force relating to the registration of nurses;

“registration” means the registration of persons in respect of specified homes under this Act.

Application

3. The provisions of this Act shall not apply to any home maintained or controlled by the Government or to places used for the reception of sick or dying persons licensed under by-laws made under the repealed Municipal Ordinance [1936 Ed., Cap. 133] or the Environmental Public Health Act [Cap. 95].

Registration

4.—(1) Any person who maintains or manages a home without being registered under this Act in respect thereof shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

(2) An application for registration shall be made to the Director in the prescribed form and shall be accompanied by the prescribed fee.

(3) Subject to this Act, the Director shall on the receipt of an application for registration register the applicant in respect of the home named in the application and issue to him a certificate of registration in the prescribed form:

Provided that the Director may refuse to register the applicant if he is satisfied —

(a)	that the applicant or any person employed by him at the home is not a fit person whether by reason of infirmity or otherwise to maintain or manage or to be employed at a home of such a description as the home named in the application;
(b)	that for reasons connected with situation, construction, state of repair, accommodation, staffing or equipment the home named in the application or any premises used in connection therewith are not fit to be used for a home of such a description as the home named in the application or that the home or premises are used or proposed to be used for purposes which are in any way improper or undesirable in the case of such a home; or that the use of the proposed home or of any premises used in connection therewith would contravene any of the lawful requirements of any public authority;
(c)	in the case of a nursing home that the home is not or will not be under the charge of a person who is either a registered medical practitioner or a registered nurse (whose name appears in that part of the register of nurses for the sick kept by the Singapore Nursing Board which shows that he or she has been trained to nurse the kind of sick for the nursing of which the home is used or proposed to be used) and who is or will be resident in the home or that there is not or will not be a proper proportion of registered nurses among the persons having the superintendence of or employed in the nursing of the patients in the home;
(d)	in the case of a maternity home that the home is not or will not be under the charge of a person who is either a registered medical practitioner or a registered midwife and who is or will be resident in the home or that there is not or will not be a proper proportion of registered midwives among the persons having superintendence of or employed in attending to or nursing of the women in the home, or that any person employed in attending any woman in childbirth in the home is not either a registered medical practitioner or a registered midwife;
(e)	that no adequate arrangements for the attendance of registered medical practitioners for service at the home at all times have been made; or
(f)	that the home does not comply with any of the regulations made by the Minister under section 12.

(4) The certificate of registration issued in respect of a home shall be displayed in a conspicuous place in the home and if default is made in complying with this subsection the person registered in respect of the home shall be guilty of an offence.

(5) The certificate of registration issued in respect of a home shall expire on 31st December in each year but may be renewed at the discretion of the Director.

(6) Any person registered in respect of a home shall notify the Director in writing not less than 7 days in advance of his intention to cease to maintain or manage the home and if he fails to do so he shall be guilty of an offence.

Cancellation of registration

5.—(1) Subject as provided in this Act, the Director may at any time cancel the registration of a person in respect of a home on any ground which would entitle him to refuse an application for the registration of that person in respect of the home or on the ground that that person has been convicted of an offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder or that any other person has been convicted of such an offence in respect of that home.

(2) Before making an order refusing an application for registration or an order cancelling any registration, the Director shall give to the applicant or to the person registered, as the case may be, not less than 14 days’ notice of his intention to make such an order and every such notice which shall be in the prescribed form shall state the grounds on which the Director intends to make the order and shall contain an intimation that, if within 14 days after the receipt of the notice the applicant or the person registered informs the Director in writing that he desires to do so, the Director shall, before making the order, give him an opportunity of showing cause, in person or by a representative, why the order should not be made.

(3) If the Director, after giving the applicant or the person registered (if under subsection (2) he desires to do so) an opportunity of showing cause, decides to refuse the application for registration or to cancel the registration, he shall make an order in the prescribed form to that effect and shall serve notice in writing thereof by registered post to the applicant or the person registered.

(4) Any person aggrieved by an order refusing an application for registration or cancelling any registration may, within 14 days of the service of the notice, appeal to the Minister whose decision shall be final.

(5) No such order shall come into force until the expiration of 14 days from the service of the notice of the order or, where notice of appeal is given against it, until the appeal has been decided or withdrawn.

Delegation of powers

6. All certificates of registration, notices, orders, warrants and other documents of whatsoever nature which the Director is required or authorised by this Act or by any regulations made thereunder to issue, serve or give may be issued, served or given by any committee or any officer to which or to whom the Director has delegated his powers in that behalf either generally or specially.

Powers of entry and inspection

7.—(1) The Director or any person duly authorised by him in writing or a registered medical practitioner in the service of the Government or any person duly authorised by such registered medical practitioner in writing may, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Minister, at any time of the day or night and without notice enter and inspect any premises which are used or to be used, or which that officer or person has reasonable cause to believe to be used for the purpose of a home and inspect any records required to be kept in accordance with the provisions of this Act or any regulations made thereunder:

Provided that nothing in this Act shall be deemed to authorise any such officer or person to inspect any medical record relating to any patient in a home.

(2) Any person who refuses to allow any such officer or person to enter or inspect any such premises or to inspect any such records or obstructs any such officer or person in the execution of his powers under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

Penalty for offences under this Act

8.—(1) Any person who is guilty of an offence under this Act for which no penalty is specially provided shall in respect of the offence be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $500 for a first offence or to a fine not exceeding $1,000 for a second or subsequent offence, and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $50 in respect of every day during which the offence continues after conviction.

(2) Where a person convicted of an offence under this Act is a body corporate, the chairman and every director of the body corporate and any officer of the body corporate concerned with the management thereof shall be guilty of the like offence unless he satisfies the court that the act constituting the offence took place without his knowledge or consent.

Public servants

9. For the purposes of this Act and of the Penal Code [Cap. 224], every person performing any duties or exercising any powers under the provisions of this Act shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of the Penal Code.

Protection of Director and others from personal liability

10. No matter or thing done by the Director or by any officer or other person acting under the direction of the Director shall, if the matter or thing was done bona fide for the purpose of executing the provisons of this Act, subject them or any of them personally to any action, liability, claim or demand.

Penalty for unauthorised communications

11. Any person who does not maintain the secrecy of all matters which come to his knowledge in the performance of his official duties under this Act or who communicates any such matter to any person whatsoever except for the purpose of carrying into effect this Act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.

Regulations

12.—(1) The Minister may make regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act and without prejudice to such general powers may make regulations —

(a)	prescribing anything which is to be or may be prescribed under this Act;
(b)	prescribing the records to be kept of patients received into and of persons employed in a home, and, in the case of a maternity home, of any miscarriages or still-births occurring in the home, and of the children born therein and of the children so born who are removed from the home otherwise than to the custody or care of any parent, guardian or relative;
(c)	requiring notification to be given of any birth or death occurring in a home;
(d)	requiring minimum standards of siting, construction, accommodation, sanitation, water supply, lighting, staffing and equipment which minimum standards shall in no case be less than those prescribed by or under the Environmental Public Health Act [Cap. 95];
(e)	prescribing fees for registration; and
(f)	requiring any person by or to whom the business of maintaining or managing any home is transferred, sold or otherwise disposed of to furnish such particulars to the Director, and in such manner as may be laid down in such regulations.

(2) Any person who acts in contravention of or fails to comply with the provisions of any regulations made under this Act shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) All regulations made under this Act shall be published in the Gazette and shall be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication and if a resolution is passed pursuant to a motion notice whereof has been given for a sitting day not later than the first available sitting day of Parliament next after the expiry of one month from the date when the regulations are so presented annulling the regulations or any part thereof as from a specified date, the regulations or such part thereof, as the case may be, shall thereupon become void as from that date but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder or to the making of new regulations.

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