How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

FM training spots in singapore is very hard to get. I am not ashamed to share my story. I am born and bread in Singapore, average student I will say , served my housemanship here with no issues, had good feedback from my seniors, managed to get good recommendations from HOD and bosses to apply to FM but I was rejected. I didnt get in.

Then when I saw the list of people who got in , I was shocked, in the list was my houseman who were incompetent and rather inefficent ( not just me but according to fellow colleagues as well ) , quite a fair no of Malaysians got in - I have to say polyclinic has a large no of them . It was sad that I was not given a chance to be a FM doctor and I really wanted to work in FM.

Regardless, I decided not to apply again as the system left me very dissapointed. Who regulates these decisions? How do we know there is no bias towards people with personal connections? Why isit that me and fellow friends with good feedback and testimonials didnt get in , but people with bad feedback, bad rep as HOs can get in?

Heard certain cluster used to flash names of applicants and ask their residents opinions. Is this a fair way? ( I am not sure how true this is ). I will still work in FM, get my relevant certs and strive to be a good family physician . But I have to say , if you need primary care doctors, perhaps first and foremost review the way u accept people.
Be clear , what ure looking for , dont have bias in selections.

Funnily enough , someof these " questionable" people who joined, did not sign on with polys and some left for private practise shortly thereafter once getting full cert and the postings rotations they wanted

The resignation rate of FM residents is not low. Alot of non-Singaporeans ( PR ) who got in actually left for greener pastures. There are mainly interested in full cert.

I agree perhaps as a local uni grad , it should not be grounds for me to argue and say "Hello, why you never take me , but you take PRs", but it is definitely hurtful to know that our own country doesn't support its local people- No added value I left of having a local degree and having good feedback. No value of all the goodwork I did as a HO and MO. My takeaway from this whole application was that I paid a price for not having a "personal connection"- very sad state of affairs

Then, they say they look at PGY. Dont want higher pGYs, scared they will leave, but isnt the attrition rate of PR higher.

I should write a news article about this maybe

Originally Posted by Unregistered

who is this tan surname that did meliodosis research

Fake news! POFMA you then you know. None of our former presidents' sons were given preferential treatment for their NS obligations, and these baseless allegations have been categorially denied by Defence Minister as reported in our mainstream news.

Sounds like FM is the most competitive specialty at the moment in SG?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

FM training spots in singapore is very hard to get. I am not ashamed to share my story. I am born and bread in Singapore, average student I will say , served my housemanship here with no issues, had good feedback from my seniors, managed to get good recommendations from HOD and bosses to apply to FM but I was rejected. I didnt get in.

Then when I saw the list of people who got in , I was shocked, in the list was my houseman who were incompetent and rather inefficent ( not just me but according to fellow colleagues as well ) , quite a fair no of Malaysians got in - I have to say polyclinic has a large no of them . It was sad that I was not given a chance to be a FM doctor and I really wanted to work in FM.

Regardless, I decided not to apply again as the system left me very dissapointed. Who regulates these decisions? How do we know there is no bias towards people with personal connections? Why isit that me and fellow friends with good feedback and testimonials didnt get in , but people with bad feedback, bad rep as HOs can get in?

Heard certain cluster used to flash names of applicants and ask their residents opinions. Is this a fair way? ( I am not sure how true this is ). I will still work in FM, get my relevant certs and strive to be a good family physician . But I have to say , if you need primary care doctors, perhaps first and foremost review the way u accept people.
Be clear , what ure looking for , dont have bias in selections.

Funnily enough , someof these " questionable" people who joined, did not sign on with polys and some left for private practise shortly thereafter once getting full cert and the postings rotations they wanted

In reality having connections is way more important than your performance when it comes to getting into residency positions or any job for that matter.
Welcome to the real world.
Be friendly and nice to as many people as you can. You never know who they may become
My guess is you may have tekkan your lousy HO? Then now he will be your senior in FM you cannot tahan that thought so wont apply.

That is incorrect, never have tekan any HO. Our worst co-Mo who doesnt hand over things properly and was a PR got in. Word was that she was friends with many other residents of the same nationality. There are many of said certain nationality who are PR in FM and they are quite powerful

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That is incorrect, never have tekan any HO. Our worst co-Mo who doesnt hand over things properly and was a PR got in. Word was that she was friends with many other residents of the same nationality. There are many of said certain nationality who are PR in FM and they are quite powerful

Think you might be referring to the SingHealth cluster
Come join us in the other clusters. No such problems.

I also agree anw. This is the real world.
Not just FM. Any other job is the same.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

who is this tan surname that did meliodosis research

Now head of genome institute of Singapore

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The resignation rate of FM residents is not low. Alot of non-Singaporeans ( PR ) who got in actually left for greener pastures. There are mainly interested in full cert.

I agree perhaps as a local uni grad , it should not be grounds for me to argue and say "Hello, why you never take me , but you take PRs", but it is definitely hurtful to know that our own country doesn't support its local people- No added value I left of having a local degree and having good feedback. No value of all the goodwork I did as a HO and MO. My takeaway from this whole application was that I paid a price for not having a "personal connection"- very sad state of affairs

Then, they say they look at PGY. Dont want higher pGYs, scared they will leave, but isnt the attrition rate of PR higher.

I should write a news article about this maybe

Agree once u above pgy 3, I won't take.
Coz pgy 4 they start to grow backbone.
U put them to im or Gs mo, they don't perform v well.
Lost the sparkle. They not happy with mohh 6k pay.



And of course really high risk of attrition. Backed by data.

Btw start of pgy 3 u should have started gdfm already.
So that by end of pgy 4. U can complete gdfm.

Once pgy 6, apply for FM program
By pgy 8 u should be mmed FM Liao.

So whether u do residency of not doesn't matter.

I think its not fair to use PGY to benchmark as residency offers the postings rotations that higher PGY might want.

On one hand, people say dont rush , take ur time to select
Then when you take your time to decide, people say its too late.

But i do notice, lower PGY quitting, they cannot take the poly life. They dont sign on and ive seen one too many quit during the poly year