s://.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/
moh-cuts-overseas-medical-schools-approved-for-practise-in-11459004
"That is because you have fallen prey to the story sold by MOHH and
MOH. The story is that there has been (and continues to be) a shortage of doctors relative to the absolute population and specific sub-population (in our case, the ageing population). In other words, when the other 2 (LKC and Duke
NUS) medical schools were opened, the narrative was that more doctors needed to be churned out to meet this need.
That story is not untrue. However, the bigger and more unsettling problem is that of structural unemployment. During the time when the 2 new medical schools were training their student-doctors,
MOH and MOHH brought in a bevy of foreign trained consultant doctors (UK, India, Philippines etc). Unfortunately, this move coincided with the implementation of the Residency System which has been widely recognized locally as a monumental failure.
The situation today is as such: We have too few vacant Consultancy positions and way too many junior Residents. Doctors who are in their 4th or 5th year of Residency who should be looking forward to a Consultancy when they "exit" their training programmes are instead offered peace-keeping titles such as "Senior Service Registrar" or "Resident Physician". These are dead-end positions. Most, if not all will never make it to Consultancy, until the position is vacant, and no other junior Residents (R4/R5) are groomed for it.
So, what do Junior Doctors do in this messy situation? They leave to the Private Sector. Most will locum or be GPs. Some will do diplomas in aesthetic medicine and become aesthetic physicians. Some will become medical officers in the private hospitals. Some will train overseas (yes, train. Because the local Residency is not recognised anywhere else, not even in the United States which inspired it's development). Some will do something else (e.g. Public Health, Medical Ethics, Medical Law).
All of this exacerbates the "shortage" perceived by Singaporeans in the A&Es (long waiting times), Specialist Outpatient Clinics (long waiting times...), and woefully misleading or incomplete articles such as the ones you linked above."