SINGAPORE, Sept. 6 -- Singapore is set to recognise one of its most storied hospitals as a national monument, with three blocks of the former Kandang Kerbau Hospital in Hampshire Road slated for preservation.

The Straits Times reported yesterday that Singapore's National Heritage Board (NHB) had listed the site as a proposed national monument on its heritage resource portal, Roots.gov.sg.

Proposed monuments receive the same legal protections as gazetted ones, with penalties for any alterations that compromise their historical character.

The three surviving blocks - built between the 1930s and 1950s - were described by NHB as "representative buildings of the former hospital and showcase the hospital's instrumental role in advancing midw...