How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Do you think FM specialists will be able to command a premium outside of public institution? (eg can they charge specialist price for their consult, once FM is recognized formally as a speciality).

I am a gp in private practice thinking of doing (if it grants me specialist accreditation) but trying to visualize what value add can it give to my practice? (I.e will I be able to do certain things that are exclusive to FM specialist only and not FP with mmed)

Also hoping they can create a viable pathway for gps to complete fcfp, (as fcfp is hard to do without institution support in it's current format)

U can charge more the moment patient like you.
Don't think tpa will pay U more with a fcfp.

FM is a speciality of breadth. The cardio managing heart failure will frown at a skin lesion, the endo looking after DM will not know how to check a knee and the psych looking after depression will not know menstruation problems.
But you are the guy who knows it all.
Tbh, even m.med is a bit of an overkill in gp land. U don't handle more esoterotic chronic like osteoporosis, dementia, Parkinson , menopause etc.
Tbh I don't know why SG need to do another 2 more years to become ' specialist'
The only other country U need 2 more years is HK and that is just more of a formality...just need to an audit of your practice and have recording of a few more complex case consult.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

most are people who tried and tried for residency but couldn't get in.

Nowadays not everyone have the interest for residency. It’s a fast paced AI driven world.. everything is moving fast. Property prices will have skyrocketed out of control beyond your marginal gain in income by the time you are done with residency+ full accreditation as a specialist.

Someone like an aesthetic doc might already be semi retired due to his early stock/property investments, made possible because he chose to leave right after full reg instead of slogging another 8-10 years to be a full fledged specialist.

Also not all specialists are created equal. An ortho/ENT will exceed the earning potential of an average aesthetic doc but non surgical specs like renal/endo will struggle to even catch up.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Do you think FM specialists will be able to command a premium outside of public institution? (eg can they charge specialist price for their consult, once FM is recognized formally as a speciality).

I am a gp in private practice thinking of doing (if it grants me specialist accreditation) but trying to visualize what value add can it give to my practice? (I.e will I be able to do certain things that are exclusive to FM specialist only and not FP with mmed)

Also hoping they can create a viable pathway for gps to complete fcfp, (as fcfp is hard to do without institution support in it's current format)

There’s 0 value. Waste of time. Work on establishing rapport and building your patient base and grow your clinic to a chain. That’s what gonna scale your income as a GP. Further education is useless for primary care in private setting. What patients want is affordable and fast service in private. No one is gonna pay you more money just because you have an MMED title or GDFM.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Nowadays not everyone have the interest for residency. It’s a fast paced AI driven world.. everything is moving fast. Property prices will have skyrocketed out of control beyond your marginal gain in income by the time you are done with residency+ full accreditation as a specialist.

Someone like an aesthetic doc might already be semi retired due to his early stock/property investments, made possible because he chose to leave right after full reg instead of slogging another 8-10 years to be a full fledged specialist.

Also not all specialists are created equal. An ortho/ENT will exceed the earning potential of an average aesthetic doc but non surgical specs like renal/endo will struggle to even catch up.

The gain in income upon becoming a procedural specialist is indeed not marginal. An SC in procedural spec in public can earn in the high 6 digits annually. A full C can also make in the mid 6 figures with a prceodrual case load. However, u are very right about the renal/endo. A renal cons makes less than a mid career aesthetic doc. If the aesthetic doc is savvy he can make a lot more and even match the earnings of a procedural specialist. Some non procedural can still catch up like haem onc/rad onc/IR etc.

Exited to aesthetics at 27, started at 18k/pm. Gained some experience moved up to 22k/pm. Now hopped to 35k/pm at 33, excluding performance bonuses. Hope to start my own clinic soon in the near future. Made substantial income in US stocks these last 6 years

Know of another guy who graduated same time as me. Doing his opthal training in the UK. He soon will return as Opthal AC. I think even though he made less during training, his career earnings will exceed mine.

Don't forget the power of compounding. Aesthetics allows you to have much higher earnings at a younger age, which means more time to grow your wealth. Tldr; aesthetics is the key to getting rich quick

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Don't forget the power of compounding. Aesthetics allows you to have much higher earnings at a younger age, which means more time to grow your wealth. Tldr; aesthetics is the key to getting rich quick

Just did a comparative analysis reasoning on aesthetics vs residency-specialisation route and the result was the same on all 5 models I used. ChatGPT/deepseek/gemini/Grok/Llama

Aesthetics was the clear winner for wealth accumulation given the faster time of earnings and less barriers to entry. Residency was favoured to be unpopular for wealth accumulation given the higher barriers to entry and longer time needed (common to apply 2/3 cycles for a competitive spec). They also mentioned one important point: more time spent in PHI for the residency route which impeded earnings trajectory.

Conclusion: by all means do residency if u get can get into a good one at 1st/2nd try but seriously reconsider that if you cannot get in by that stage

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just did a comparative analysis reasoning on aesthetics vs residency-specialisation route and the result was the same on all 5 models I used. ChatGPT/deepseek/gemini/Grok/Llama

Aesthetics was the clear winner for wealth accumulation given the faster time of earnings and less barriers to entry. Residency was favoured to be unpopular for wealth accumulation given the higher barriers to entry and longer time needed (common to apply 2/3 cycles for a competitive spec). They also mentioned one important point: more time spent in PHI for the residency route which impeded earnings trajectory.

Conclusion: by all means do residency if u get can get into a good one at 1st/2nd try but seriously reconsider that if you cannot get in by that stage

Woo. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just did a comparative analysis reasoning on aesthetics vs residency-specialisation route and the result was the same on all 5 models I used. ChatGPT/deepseek/gemini/Grok/Llama

Aesthetics was the clear winner for wealth accumulation given the faster time of earnings and less barriers to entry. Residency was favoured to be unpopular for wealth accumulation given the higher barriers to entry and longer time needed (common to apply 2/3 cycles for a competitive spec). They also mentioned one important point: more time spent in PHI for the residency route which impeded earnings trajectory.

Conclusion: by all means do residency if u get can get into a good one at 1st/2nd try but seriously reconsider that if you cannot get in by that stage

Residency also wins if ur successful in private but it’s close. Could you share your numbers so i can see too haha

Just saw one Aesthetic clinic offering up to S$50k a mth! That's crazy...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just saw one Aesthetic clinic offering up to S$50k a mth! That's crazy...

Must be making the employee working very hard.
Please share the advert/ company here.

I also checked on chatgpt and indeed aesthetic medical practitioner earns more than a specialist (but only if you open your own chain of clinics).