Originally Posted by Unregistered

AM the op.
1. Can you actually study locally and NOT be bonded?

2. I didn't study locally. I came back from overseas and after a culture shock decided i want a 8-5 job and so apply for f med in next cycle. So quite fast. i'm like 1 year older than the YSLOM batch mates who enter residency straight from med school

3. not hard to get polyclinic job if u get into residency, at least for now. some of the R1 residents i supervise told me they applied for years before getting in though, so by your time maybe harder. Much harder to go by the RP route. Cos u need to get a posting via MOHH and polyclinic posting always very popular and unofficially, u need to serve 2 mopex posting , have empty spots in clinic before clinic head will consider you, so a bit of luck. Traditionally, spots are reserve for residents, but now and then someone will leave.

I say , just enjoy the fam med posting in year 1 and year 3 first la.


4. Hmm. I like my job actually cos i like to talk to people and don't like my patients to be too sick. Can actually love it if not for the huge number of patients i need to see. My best time was actually during the thick of covid cos patient load was low and i was like having 20 minutes per patient. Really sorted out a lot of them during those times.

Regrets not specializing? Well, i would love to be a consultant boss and have minions working for me. Being recognized as a "specialist ' will also be nice, so my wife doesn't have to keep explaining to her friends what's a GP and what's a FP ( not that i cared much, call me what you want, i make about as much as a hospital specialist and more than most hired GPs).
My work is not too complicated because i'm trained for it. Anything i not comfortable, i refer. Haha, i called myself a lowly polyclinic doctor but we actually do more than that. That's how i identified that troll. So obviously not a doctor , that one. 500K in FAANG waking up at 9am. Sure.

Anyway, end of the day no easy job to get good salary la.
Hospital specialist have their responsibilities too. As one of my IM AC friends put it, u think we all just rock up at 8am and listen the junior tell us what is going on? We already in hospital at 630am preclerking the patient, after u leave, we have to make sure everything is alrite.