Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Currently one of the lucky ones to get mopex in ops (have worked in 2 different polyclinics so far through my mo years) . Read quite a lot of posts about polyclinic vs private gp world in this thread, can honestly see the pros and cons of each option.
But one thing that I have noticed is that there is not a lot of older Singaporeans (e.g above age 50) in polyclinic.
- for example, my current polyclinic, only the hod is Singaporean and above 50. Of course there are many older senior RPs there, but most of them are foreigners.
- there are many young fps (Singaporeans) in their early 30s who just completed mmed and have signed on with polyclinic, but I can't help but think why are people not staying for the long haul (Ie till retirement) if polyclinic is really comparable to outside gp land?
Contrast that to hospital setting, where virtually every department, you can see Singaporeans staying for the long haul (i.e all the way till senior consultant, emeritus consultant then retirement).
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The real reason is tied to economics.
In the mid 1990s , fam med was popular until some
EDB scholar decided that Singapore can be the Mayo of the east for medical tourism and hence begin a decade of hospital centric development.
we know how that turned out.
people who can pay will go to the real mayo.
people who can't pay goes to thailand or penang.
Almost no one do fam med during the period from 2000 to 2011 and as result there is a dearth of leaders in that generation. Back then , why bother to do fam med? just finish bond and go be a GP. Almost no one join the polyclinic for long, its either to gain experience or a hardship posting ( yes, it was a hardship posting).
No one want to join they end up recruiting from overseas resulting in the situation today.
Fam med residency started around 2011 or 2012 with first batch graduating in 2014/5. It started with total 50 resident island wide. Only now hit 100 or so.
So far only a good 6-7 batches.
The polyclinic space will grow with capitation model of funding.
In this thread, u mainly have a lot of MO.
As a MO, its a toss up between polyclinic or private GP land.
Salary same same on hourly basis. You are essentially selling time for money as a private GP. Want 200K per year ? work your evenings and weekends and PH.
Only problem is polyclinic hiring lesser and lesser of MO level perm staff.
by the time you have a m.med u are registrar level.
At that level, the polyclinic pay decently. You will be hard press to find a mostly 8-4:30 pm job with alternative saturday , 27-31 days annual leave , no evening and PH commitments with a similar salary. I have all the christmas, CNY holidays etc lei because polyclinic is CLOSED.
Hell, even if you chao keng MC also no problem. You try to take MC , emergency leave as an anchor running a GP clinic see what happens..
The work is different. GP scope of practice is really limited. Mostly acute work. Its either MC , msk or skin problems. Your chronic stuff is restricted to simple HTN, simple DM or asthma if at all.
In polyclinic, we can deal with the full spectrum of a lot of chronic disease. For acute cases, i can do a x ray for example. A lot of thing actually walk through the door. I diagnosis muscular dystrophy in a child with gowler sign to picking up renal bruit in hypertensive patient. I run specialty clinics as well. Depending on your clinic there is mental health clinic, memory clinic, geriatric clinic, tele-derm clinic etc. I think bukit batok even has a AF clinic.
While some might balk at research , teaching and admin, it is actually interesting work and give variety. GP you coop up in your room only lei. I like to teach and i do teach med students from year 3 to year 5 , residents and even GDFMers.
Research might not be your cup of tea but i find it ok. Some guys make it their career.
Admin is not too bad because you actually need to do some outside the box thinking to improve things.
So your observation might be true only for a while. More and more people are joining primary care in the polyclinic. So far i think no emeritus consultant yet though. Haha