How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, i’m a local medical student, currently in y1. Did u study in a local medical school and were you bonded? How many years did you spend training before you eventually settled down as a polyclinic doctor? Is it hard to become a polyclinic doctor and do u have any regrets not specialising

not the OP.
but anw, OPS doctor - various routes.
can join at different levels. MOPEX, GDFM, MMed, etc
career trajectory (and salary of course) will be different at different stages.

you are still young. explore around.
people also have various life goals and priorities at different stages of their lives.
OPS job is shag as clinical work is intense. but there is still room for progression and growth if you aspire to make a difference on a bigger scale and take on bigger responsibilities.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think the keyword is you are just a lowly polyclinic doctor, which is why you do not have the responsibilities and KPIs that us specialists and higher ups do as we progress in our careers. Many of my medical peers with kids would advise them to choose an alternative career to medicine knowing what the reality is like now. For the students audience, the world is your oyster if you graduate with top IB or A levels scores, do not limit yourself to just medicine/dentistry.
I do not know how old you the previous writer are but you need to compare apples to apples, and recognise that your wife may not be in the same league as my JC friend if she is working that hard for that level of pay.

Not the poster but this actually proves his point innit? He makes 200K pa with few responsibilities and an 8 to 5 job, which is a pretty good gig for someone who doesn't want to be a 24/7 high flier.

Medicine is no longer the top dog prestige role it used to be relative to other jobs, but it is misguided to think that it ever was. Investment Bankers or Private Equity people have been earning comparably or even more than top specialists since the finance boom in the late 80s.

The fact that a wider range of industries have expanded their potential top line, doesn't make medicine a less attractive path in terms of potential earning power.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, i’m a local medical student, currently in y1. Did u study in a local medical school and were you bonded? How many years did you spend training before you eventually settled down as a polyclinic doctor? Is it hard to become a polyclinic doctor and do u have any regrets not specialising

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.

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.

Just checking you completeed your fellowship? Currently a FM r3 (taking mmed next year). I am not sure that FM mmed get 200k/annum from what I hear from my seniors. Also I heard that they removed the sign on bonus starting from the batch above me.

Based on my understanding, a private salaried gp can earn 13-14k (without locum) which is still slightly higher that a FM mmed even taking into account the lower bonus, and the need to pay for own insurance etc. But there is no progression, and I guess if you do fellowship, you earn more in ops eventually.

Funny thing is most of my batch all thinking about leaving for private (not sure of it's due to covid fatigue or what)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Come on lah med sch so easy to enter
My time nus 250 places.

Now 300. Plus ntu another 150. Plus dukies 80.

Shoo in for aussie and uk schs if u got the money.

(Of course exceptions are oxbridge but the rest really just $$)

Aussie and UK schools have foundation courses for medicine even if you have poor academic results.

If you study in unrecognized medical schools, just make sure you pass those postgrad exams.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just checking you completeed your fellowship? Currently a FM r3 (taking mmed next year). I am not sure that FM mmed get 200k/annum from what I hear from my seniors. Also I heard that they removed the sign on bonus starting from the batch above me.

Based on my understanding, a private salaried gp can earn 13-14k (without locum) which is still slightly higher that a FM mmed even taking into account the lower bonus, and the need to pay for own insurance etc. But there is no progression, and I guess if you do fellowship, you earn more in ops eventually.

Funny thing is most of my batch all thinking about leaving for private (not sure of it's due to covid fatigue or what)

private got its own challenges la. the work is less mind boggling though. I find that it's easy to fall the the dark side in private. like ordering tons of sx meds for urti, starting fenofibrates anyhow. when I locum, I saw private gp starting levothroxine empirically for fatigue. no blood test, nil other hypothyroid sx, so it's dodegy af. u can get v rich if pat likes u.

no fellowship . it doesn't make a diff to your salary.
but most cluster u need fellowship to promote to consultant but having fellowship doesn't ensure your promotion to consultant.
I got my ac 2 to 3 years ago. slowly earn the annual increment lo.
probably retire as a ac.
maybe if they recog fellowship as a completely trained fam med specialist I go and do it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

private got its own challenges la. the work is less mind boggling though. I find that it's easy to fall the the dark side in private. like ordering tons of sx meds for urti, starting fenofibrates anyhow. when I locum, I saw private gp starting levothroxine empirically for fatigue. no blood test, nil other hypothyroid sx, so it's dodegy af. u can get v rich if pat likes u.

no fellowship . it doesn't make a diff to your salary.
but most cluster u need fellowship to promote to consultant but having fellowship doesn't ensure your promotion to consultant.
I got my ac 2 to 3 years ago. slowly earn the annual increment lo.
probably retire as a ac.
maybe if they recog fellowship as a completely trained fam med specialist I go and do it.

Can I ask what is the pay limit/cap for ops doctors with mmed? (Assuming you stay there till you retire, i.e 35 years of service, with anual pay increment of 2-3%)

Also do private gp give anual increment of 2-3% for inflation as well? I.e will the pay still be 13-14k 20 years later? 😂

Many blindly enter medicine because it is deemed a "prestigious" course for straight As students. How many here regretting now?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can I ask what is the pay limit/cap for ops doctors with mmed? (Assuming you stay there till you retire, i.e 35 years of service, with anual pay increment of 2-3%)

Also do private gp give anual increment of 2-3% for inflation as well? I.e will the pay still be 13-14k 20 years later? 😂

that's the maths u can do right? and every few years will have salary revision and adjust upward by 5 to 15 percent.

this is salary forum with a lot of canon fairy la.
someone will later jump in and say their so n so faang friend have annual increment of 15 percent and you doctor sucks.

unfortunately it's true, there are a number of tech jobs that pay in excess of 200k, and with very relaxed/flexible schedules.
I am in one such job, believe it or not - I don't set my alarm clock on some days, and the level of stress is low. It's the nature of the industry - in tech, as long as you know the shortcuts and deliver the results, no one cares what you actually do.
In medicine, you have to simply put in face time.