How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thank you for your reply! Indeed I am planning for migration for family. And I would like to try Singapore as my stepping stone.
For my own career, I am paving my path to be an intensivist through anaesthesia training. Likely to face keen competition I guess. To begin with MO post, should I directly send my application and CV to the intensive care/ anaesthseia unit of those 6 public hospitals, or is there a central recruitment system?

Usually for MOs that are keen for training, you ideally should employed under mohh. Ministry of health holdings. This is the eqivalent of hospital authority in singapore.

Their email is here [email protected].

You may google them. Usually do not approach hospital directly as they tend to offer non training position. We call them resident physician or staff physician. Pay is higher but non training.

To be eligible for training position, you have to do mopex (medical officer posting exercise) rotations until you get into a training position. Each rotation last six months.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi everyone Thank you for all the useful information provided in this forum.
I am a 2nd year Resident trainee from Hong Kong and graduated from CUHK. For personal reason I am keen for moving and working in Sg. I noticed it is quite impossible for me to get in residency training program without working experience in Sg. I am wondering about the level of competition and difficulty to get a resident post from a medical officer post, assuming after working a year in Sg as a Medical officer.

Thank you so much.

Anaesthesia residency is quite competitive at the moment, although things may change due to new hospitals coming up. Why dont you complete your residency in HK first, and apply as a qualified specialist? That would be my advice, if you can afford to spend a few more years in HK

I am a Singaporean UK medical student. I am still unsure whether to stay on here until a consultant or to go back home. How bad is it to get residency back home as a foreign grad but Singaporean? I am interested in Radiology at the moment. Things look bleak in UK as well in terms of getting specialty training with regards to immigration issues but heard Singapore is even worse (along with the 80h work weeks).

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am a Singaporean UK medical student. I am still unsure whether to stay on here until a consultant or to go back home. How bad is it to get residency back home as a foreign grad but Singaporean? I am interested in Radiology at the moment. Things look bleak in UK as well in terms of getting specialty training with regards to immigration issues but heard Singapore is even worse (along with the 80h work weeks).

At this moment, if you are only narrowly focused on radiology, the odds of exiting as a radiology consultant in Singapore is not great. You are competing with 500 local grads per year in saturated market. Radiology is super popular specialty. Coz it is regarded as being away from the clinical trenches of the wards.
Make sure u have a great CV, publish quite a bit.

Try to pass your frcr part 1 as early as possible. Used to be possible for overseas candidate to take without a training position. I think it is still possible. Higher chance to get into a Singapore training position with frcr part 1 pass, and a publication.

FYI, Singapore citizenship doesn't matter when it comes to selecting resident as the selection committee is nationality blind. We are very fair.

However, that being said, being a citizen confers advantage in early full registration. If u do ur housemanship in Singapore, then within one yr ho and two yr mo you can get full registration if you are a citizen, then you can leave for gp practice.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

At this moment, if you are only narrowly focused on radiology, the odds of exiting as a radiology consultant in Singapore is not great. You are competing with 500 local grads per year in saturated market. Radiology is super popular specialty. Coz it is regarded as being away from the clinical trenches of the wards.
Make sure u have a great CV, publish quite a bit.

Try to pass your frcr part 1 as early as possible. Used to be possible for overseas candidate to take without a training position. I think it is still possible. Higher chance to get into a Singapore training position with frcr part 1 pass, and a publication.

FYI, Singapore citizenship doesn't matter when it comes to selecting resident as the selection committee is nationality blind. We are very fair.

However, that being said, being a citizen confers advantage in early full registration. If u do ur housemanship in Singapore, then within one yr ho and two yr mo you can get full registration if you are a citizen, then you can leave for gp practice.

Thanks for the reply and the advice. I have realised radiology is a bad idea as much as I enjoy it, trying to keep my options open now. what is in demand apart from geriatrics and GP? Competition in UK for training post is about 3.5:1 applications per post or 2:1 interview for training posts, but with consultant jobs at the end. Not sure how Singapore compares.

There is the PEG grant to apply for overseas students and my friends and I have some doubts on whether to take it, afraid of the future prospects with the 500 grads/year from the new schools and being stuck in MOPEX working 80h or giving up and becoming a resident physician or GP, but there are always risks working anywhere.

From what I understand, the residency selection is on MOPEX performance and also knowing people, is it that merit based? I imagine it would help immensely to do MOPEX in the specialty you are interested in

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am a Singaporean UK medical student. I am still unsure whether to stay on here until a consultant or to go back home. How bad is it to get residency back home as a foreign grad but Singaporean? I am interested in Radiology at the moment. Things look bleak in UK as well in terms of getting specialty training with regards to immigration issues but heard Singapore is even worse (along with the 80h work weeks).

At the end of the day, what's most important is to be in a specialist training position, doesn't matter if it is UK or sg. Why dont you try to get an attachment with a radiology dept in sg for your elective? Policies and opportunities change fr time to time in terms of demand and supply, its better u speak directly to those in the know ie radiology trainees/program director

Many thanks for the advice everyone. I have planned an elective in sg to find out more. Yes at the end of the day I would hopefully like to go somewhere I can get specialty training. Just wondering what is in demand now in sg apart from geriatrics and fam med?

With the new hospitals opening up, future seems a bit better but duke-nus and LKC are definitely churning out a lot of graduates and my local NUS friends say residency is difficult with bottleneck at the reg and consultant levels.

My friends and I are worried about being stuck in MOPEX for years, and just the general working culture seems very hierarchical and likely to burn out. Just afraid it will be like SAF all over again. Some want to go back for family and friends but seems like you will not spend much time with them? Some seniors have gone back for houseman and a lot seem to regret and they signed the PEG.

Big decision to make and something IMGs have to think about at the end of the day.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Many thanks for the advice everyone. I have planned an elective in sg to find out more. Yes at the end of the day I would hopefully like to go somewhere I can get specialty training. Just wondering what is in demand now in sg apart from geriatrics and fam med?

With the new hospitals opening up, future seems a bit better but duke-nus and LKC are definitely churning out a lot of graduates and my local NUS friends say residency is difficult with bottleneck at the reg and consultant levels.

My friends and I are worried about being stuck in MOPEX for years, and just the general working culture seems very hierarchical and likely to burn out. Just afraid it will be like SAF all over again. Some want to go back for family and friends but seems like you will not spend much time with them? Some seniors have gone back for houseman and a lot seem to regret and they signed the PEG.

Big decision to make and something IMGs have to think about at the end of the day.

I dont think there is a correct answer or an easy way. In the UK, the most likely position you are going to get is GP trainee or PSY trainee. In Singapore PSY is hot, while fam med residency is hard to get in. (however in Singapore, you do not need fam med residency to be a gp). I feel that there no difference between staying in UK or Singapore in terms of outcome. Both you gotta slog it out.

In Singapore, to get into a specialty of choice and exit out you have to fight it out, pull strings, work hard =>80hrs. Use whatever rest time you have to study, really impress your boss.

In UK, you need to handle with visa issue, your nationality, your race, also slog it out.

In Singapore, you get your family support.
In UK, i suppose there is excitement. Furthermore, Brexit now makes eastern EU candidates harder to enter UK, hence by non EU candidates enjoy a fairer competition? Say a polish nationality doctor will now on the same footing as a Singapore nationality doctor.

So honestly, both ways are the same. The illusion of choice perturbs the mind. Good luck!

I'm a Singaporean UK medical student who just graduated in July. I am really thinking hard about the future in terms of what specialty I should venture into. I understand it might be a little premature and it's better for me to get some experience in each speciality before I decide. However I will be completing my FY1 in the UK before returning under the PEG scheme and there're a few questions I hope someone can answer for me.

1. How does the pay of GP here in singapore compare to their counterparts working in a government hospital ?

2. When is the earliest post graduation that you can be employed as a GP ? And can you go private straight up.

3. Is radiology not a good specialty because most of the job will be replaced by AI in the near future ?

4. Is there a speciality that offers good work life balance, pay and is not so competitive to get into ?

Thank you very much !

Just want to detract abit. Housemanship is often the hardest period a doctor will go through in his career, but in the grand scheme of things, its just a tiny (1 year) portion of a 30 year and possibly more career. So dont be put off by how difficult things are in this period. Housemen in sg work very hard and probably dont get as much recognition as they deserve since they do a lot paperwork (clerking, discharge summaries, blue letters). Take it as a rite of passage. Nobody is a houseman forever