Hospitalisation leave is the paid time off you get when you are warded, have day surgery, are quarantined under law, or are certified to rest at home after discharge. If you have worked at least three months with your employer, the Employment Act gives you up to 60 paid days of it a year once you pass six months of service. The catch most people miss: that 60-day figure already counts the 14 days of outpatient medical leave inside it, so the two do not stack. This guide walks through who qualifies, the exact proration table for your first six months, what rate your employer must pay, when consultation fees get reimbursed, and the mistakes that get claims rejected.
Hospitalisation leave is a separate, larger pool from your everyday sick leave. It kicks in for serious medical events rather than a runny nose. Under the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) rules, you qualify for paid hospitalisation leave when one of a short list of conditions applies, and a medical certificate (MC) backs it up.
Day surgery counts even if you go home the same afternoon, and so does a quarantine order issued under any written law. The part employees forget is the third trigger: a hospital-admitting doctor can certify that you need further rest or treatment at home after you are discharged, and those certified days are hospitalisation days too, not ordinary MC.
Two numbers matter and they are not added together. With six or more months of service you get 14 days of paid outpatient sick leave and 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave per calendar year. The 60 days already includes those 14 outpatient days. So if you have used all 14 outpatient days, the most hospitalisation leave you can still draw that year is 46 days, not 60.
Both pools reset on 1 January. Leave that straddles year-end splits: days in December come off last year's balance, days in January come off the new year's. If you are still on the job during your notice period, your unused entitlement remains available to you.
| Months of service completed | Outpatient sick leave (days) | Hospitalisation leave (days, incl. outpatient) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 5 | 15 |
| 4 months | 8 | 30 |
| 5 months | 11 | 45 |
| 6 months or more | 14 | 60 |
You need to have worked for your employer for at least three months to draw any paid sick or hospitalisation leave. Below three months, your employer is not obliged to pay you for medical absences, though many do as goodwill. Between three and six months, you are on the prorated schedule in the table above, climbing to the full 14 and 60 once you cross six months.
Eligibility runs across the whole Employment Act, so most local and foreign employees on a contract of service are covered, including part-timers (whose days are prorated to hours worked). Independent contractors and the genuinely self-employed are not covered, which is one more reason to keep your own MediShield Life and any private cover current.
Pay rates differ by leave type. On paid hospitalisation leave, your employer pays your full gross rate of pay. On paid outpatient sick leave, it is also your gross rate of pay but excluding any shift allowance. Monthly shift allowances during sick leave are meant to be settled between you, the employer and the union.
Consultation fees are a separate question. Your employer must reimburse the medical consultation fee only when the MC comes from a doctor at a public medical institution or from a doctor your company appointed, the absence produces at least one day of paid leave, and you have served three months. A walk-in to a private GP that your company never appointed does not have to be reimbursed, even though that MC still counts toward your leave days.
The fastest way to tell them apart is the trigger and the pool. Outpatient MC is for the doctor's-visit illnesses and draws on the 14-day quota. Hospitalisation leave is for warding, surgery, quarantine and certified post-discharge recovery, and draws on the 60-day pool. Because the 60 contains the 14, heavy outpatient use shrinks the hospitalisation runway you have left for the year.
Note also what hospitalisation leave does not cover: cosmetic procedures are excluded even when they involve surgery, and you cannot claim sick leave for an illness that falls on a public holiday, annual leave day, rest day or other non-working day. If your stay runs past your paid balance, the extra days become unpaid unless your contract says otherwise.
| Feature | Outpatient sick leave | Hospitalisation leave |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cap (6+ months) | 14 days | 60 days (includes the 14) |
| Typical trigger | Doctor's visit, general illness | Warding, day surgery, quarantine, post-discharge rest |
| Pay rate | Gross rate, excl. shift allowance | Full gross rate of pay |
| Counts toward the other? | Yes, eats into the 60 | Drawn from the same 60-day pool |
Tell your employer you are sick within 48 hours, or as soon as you reasonably can. Missing that window without a good reason lets an employer treat the absence as unauthorised, which can mean no pay for those days. Hand over a valid MC from a registered medical practitioner, keep the hospital admission or discharge documents, and check that the dates on your MC match the days you were actually warded or certified to rest.
If money is tight while you recover, a long ward stay can dent your cash flow even with full pay during the paid window. It is worth keeping a buffer; our financial health check shows how many months your savings would last, and an Integrated Shield Plan on top of MediShield Life softens the hospital bill itself.
No. The 60-day hospitalisation pool already includes the 14 outpatient sick-leave days. If you have used all 14 outpatient days, the most hospitalisation leave you can still take that year is 46 days, because the two figures do not stack.
Only if that clinic doctor was appointed by your company, or the MC came from a public medical institution. A walk-in private GP that your company never appointed does not have to be reimbursed, although that MC still counts toward your paid leave days.
Yes, if you have served at least three months. Hospitalisation leave is paid at your full gross rate of pay. Outpatient sick leave is also paid at the gross rate but excludes any shift allowance, settled between employer, employee and union.
Days beyond your paid balance become unpaid unless your employment contract gives you more. Your entitlement resets each calendar year on 1 January, and any leave straddling year-end is split between the two years' balances.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.