How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for your post. What occupations were your jc friends in?

Chief of Surgery 700k! Wow
What bout the chief of medicine?

Actually how much more does admin appointment people get?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

NUH MO here. I would just like to take the time to post more accurate details as to how job progression and pay is like. And my reflection on how medicine is a career has and will be. My parents are both private specialists so I could perhaps shed more light on what job pay and progression is truly like.

I was jaded once too and it does suck sometimes being in hospital and earning way less than your good friends from JC. It feels sucky especially because you feel as though you could do the job your friends do and perhaps better. It's human to want to chiong in something that reaps you the biggest rewards.

There truly is no right or wrong answer. If a doctor leaves to pursue aesthetics to build a better life for himself and his family, how can we call him a sell-off? Likewise, if a doctor has a passion for CTVS, how can we call him a slave if he is doing what he loves?

For me, coming from a position of privilege, I did not have to worry about finances when I was younger and was free to pursue my interests and passions. I am very grateful for this. I will likely stay in the public sector and pursue surgical residency. Of course this may change once I do get married and have children. But this is my personal plan for now.

Roughly speaking, the take home for MOs is 6-7k.
As a registrar, perhaps 8k.
A.Cons, it depends on your specialty. generally surgeons earn more than internal medicine doctors (with the exception of cardio and gastro). About 12k.
Consultants- it varies a lot.
if you are a nephrology consultant, with no administrative roles, perhaps 15-18k.
If you are the chief of surgery about 700k/year.

In private practice, it is a different ballgame and there is a lot of variation.
Surgeons can hit up to 2.3 million a year (last year, a private practice plastic surgeon)
Respiratory physicians typically 300k-400k a year.
Proceduralists like Gastro or Cardio average about 800k a year. (a good year was 1.5 million)

Not too sure about private GPs to make an accurate gauge.

So ultimately it depends on what you want to achieve with your life. There really isn't a right or wrong answer. I hope everyone finds happiness in this chat!

Sad Respi Doctors. Earn half of gastro and cardio....

Yep so my JC friends are all over the place. Investment banking, law, start-ups, big crypto funds. They didn't do too well in JC but many of them made it to Ivy leagues and of course from there did very well- super happy for them and I delight in their successes. For sure they're earning big bucks even at such a young age- e.g. my friend in a boutique IB firm takes back about 20k SGD per month after tax in the states.

Although I do think the working hours are sometimes ridiculous as a HO I also think about jobs and security- yes I believe we should pay our HOs, MOs and registrars more as they do a very important job. At the same time there is definitely a bottle neck of people filling up roles higher up. This structural unemployment makes it difficult even after all these years to create better working hours for HOship. I believe it is more difficult than it seems to try to fix the system.

What I do think is fixable especially in the short term is definitely the attitude of many senior doctors. It always makes it a pleasant experience suffering together as a team than having to work begrudgingly for a consultant.

chief of medicine to be frank I'm not too sure
If you rise up the administrative role of the public sector hospitals the pay package can be quite lucrative (can hit 7 digits or more)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Chief of Surgery 700k! Wow
What bout the chief of medicine?

Actually how much more does admin appointment people get?

dude. it's the same troll.
chief of surgery ?
lol , watch too much Grey's anatomy.

sg which hospital got a chief of surgery.
anyhow pom

Originally Posted by Unregistered

dude. it's the same troll.
chief of surgery ?
lol , watch too much Grey's anatomy.

sg which hospital got a chief of surgery.
anyhow pom

Prof Krishnakumar Madhavan is the Chief of Surgery in NUH

Looks like you're the troll instead.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Prof Krishnakumar Madhavan is the Chief of Surgery in NUH

Looks like you're the troll instead.

lol, I calling u a troll becuSe in sg , no one calls them chief.
of course use ur little toe also know there's a head of surgical servies. googling for them and posting them here doesn't mean anything
he's the director of surgical services. pple call him prof krish

Originally Posted by Unregistered

NUH MO here. I would just like to take the time to post more accurate details as to how job progression and pay is like. And my reflection on how medicine is a career has and will be. My parents are both private specialists so I could perhaps shed more light on what job pay and progression is truly like.

I was jaded once too and it does suck sometimes being in hospital and earning way less than your good friends from JC. It feels sucky especially because you feel as though you could do the job your friends do and perhaps better. It's human to want to chiong in something that reaps you the biggest rewards.

There truly is no right or wrong answer. If a doctor leaves to pursue aesthetics to build a better life for himself and his family, how can we call him a sell-off? Likewise, if a doctor has a passion for CTVS, how can we call him a slave if he is doing what he loves?

For me, coming from a position of privilege, I did not have to worry about finances when I was younger and was free to pursue my interests and passions. I am very grateful for this. I will likely stay in the public sector and pursue surgical residency. Of course this may change once I do get married and have children. But this is my personal plan for now.

Roughly speaking, the take home for MOs is 6-7k.
As a registrar, perhaps 8k.
A.Cons, it depends on your specialty. generally surgeons earn more than internal medicine doctors (with the exception of cardio and gastro). About 12k.
Consultants- it varies a lot.
if you are a nephrology consultant, with no administrative roles, perhaps 15-18k.
If you are the chief of surgery about 700k/year.

In private practice, it is a different ballgame and there is a lot of variation.
Surgeons can hit up to 2.3 million a year (last year, a private practice plastic surgeon)
Respiratory physicians typically 300k-400k a year.
Proceduralists like Gastro or Cardio average about 800k a year. (a good year was 1.5 million)

Not too sure about private GPs to make an accurate gauge.

So ultimately it depends on what you want to achieve with your life. There really isn't a right or wrong answer. I hope everyone finds happiness in this chat!

Hi! Thanks for the insight. Can you also explain the difference between surgeon and proceduralists?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

lol, I calling u a troll becuSe in sg , no one calls them chief.
of course use ur little toe also know there's a head of surgical servies. googling for them and posting them here doesn't mean anything
he's the director of surgical services. pple call him prof krish

I mean idk the people in my batch have always referred to him as chief of surgery lol

Originally Posted by Unregistered

lol, I calling u a troll becuSe in sg , no one calls them chief.
of course use ur little toe also know there's a head of surgical servies. googling for them and posting them here doesn't mean anything
he's the director of surgical services. pple call him prof krish

I'm not the writer who wrote the long essay originally, just defending him/her because you're being a toxic mf.