Prior to the establishment of a quarantine facility at Moulmein Road, there existed a quarantine camp at Balestier in 1907. Opened in 1913, the quarantine facility at Moulmein Road was initially known as the Isolation Hospital. It was later renamed to the Middleton Hospital in 1920, in recognition of Dr. W.R.C Middleton, who had served the hospital for 27 years, upon his retirement. The centre became a branch of Tan Tock Seng Hospital in 1985, was renamed the Communicable Disease Centre, and came under the management of the National Healthcare Group. On 1 April 1995, it came under TTSH's direct administration. In March 2003, CDC was the central point of Severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Singapore. As fully isolated rooms were limited, existing HIV patients had to be moved elsewhere within the centre while patients with skin conditions had to be discharged to make way to quarantine suspected SARS patient. As the outbreak wore on, TTSH took over as the main hospital to quarantine and treat SARS patients on 22 March 2003. On 13 August 2003, an existing TTSH block adjacent to the CDC was renovated to be used as containment wards and served as CDC 2. This block was initially refurnished for Ren Ci Community Hospital, the SARS outbreak put a break to the plan. On 13 December 2018, CDC ceased operations as a medical facility, concluding its 111 years of operations. All operations moved to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, a new building opposite the main Tan Tock Seng Hospital building. Operational in May 2019, the new facility has a 330-bed capacity and is designed to manage an outbreak the size of the SARS outbreak. On 7 September 2019, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases was officially opened by Minister for HealthGan Kim Yong. It has state-of-the-art technologies and tracks patients in the building to prevent the spread of outbreaks. In addition, the building houses Singapore's first high-level isolation unit for highly contagious, even lethal diseases like Ebola. The NCID is currently being used as an isolation facility for patients infected with COVID-19 during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Access
The medical facility is located close to Novena MRT station on the North South Line. There is also a full-day shuttle bus service for both staff and the public. The pick-up point is located within HealthCity Novena, with an added location to Whampoa Market from 11:00 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. The shuttle bus has a limited seating capacity of 23 pax per trip.
