Hi All,
Thanks for the input! Yup I'm fully aware of the Australia internship crisis, so most probably coming back to Sg, which is what I want.

I went to look up the MOHH residency postings and there are about 22 being posted to General Surgery residency for 2018. I can see that that's a very competitive group, not to say the least of even smaller intake groups like for Ophth/ENT (~3-5 each?) Sigh

Nonetheless you only lose if you don't try, and I'm prepared to slog it out in Sg for my HO/MO years. Can or cannot get residency, that's in the future. However I still have some questions which I hope somebody in the know may shed some light on:

1) Generally in which PGY year would it be recommended to apply for residency?
---I understand it takes time to have sufficient MOPEX rotations and to build up some portfolio for research, but I was wondering how long is the norm before you gain sufficient experience to compete?

2) If I can't get into residency, could I follow the MO route to become a RP? What's the pay like and how long would it take to get there? I guess as long as I can engage in interesting casework in hospitals, this may still be an attractive option.

3) With all the push for generalists, will there even be enough slots for the public system to absorb and promote doctors? If private GP is already saturated, worst case is may end up as MO for a decade.