How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

If you complain about nurses getting more... You don't deserve to be doctors.

I have worked in hospital before. Its basically run by nurses.
I have also seen doctors who think they are god sent.
And doctors who are respected by nurses.

How about we patient go and **** on you doctors then..
Complain your service. Give you bad rating?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you complain about nurses getting more... You don't deserve to be doctors.

I have worked in hospital before. Its basically run by nurses.
I have also seen doctors who think they are god sent.
And doctors who are respected by nurses.

How about we patient go and **** on you doctors then..
Complain your service. Give you bad rating?

aiyoh.
u nurse is it.
why so angsty.
I no problem with nurse getting more money. they deserve it
and no, nurses dun run the hospital. the ops staff equally important.
in a way everyone is indispensable la.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

aiyoh.
u nurse is it.
why so angsty.
I no problem with nurse getting more money. they deserve it
and no, nurses dun run the hospital. the ops staff equally important.
in a way everyone is indispensable la.

Drs are dispensable.
Nowadays nurse can do almost everything drs do

Except the surgeons.

So no need dr. Just surgeons and nurses

retention bonus will be good for healthcare staff in general or maybe like a covid bonus . This year was really hard work for medical staff

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I didn’t pass my MMed the 1st time and I didn’t try again as I prefer to concentrate on my family and enjoy my life (I was previously from a Singhealth OPS). I joined a small group practice owned by my MMed tutor and my pay package is quite ok, at least on par with a non-surgical consultant. I get around $230k-280k/year (lowest annual pay due to the drop in patients seen in 2020 due to COVID), from my pay package of: basic, profit sharing and bonuses from a 43hr/week and 21 days AL/VL. It all depends where and who you join. If you join a large group ie. Raffles, Healthway, Parkway etc, do not expect your pay to be very fantastic, likely around $160-$200k/year (Not too bad actually). Also, I helped out on PHs and some nights but these are considered extras with a $100/hr locum pay, quite standard in our GP line of work whereas you don’t get ‘OT’ pay in OPS. I also take joy that most of my patients will come back and see me either for their acute or chronic conditions whereby in the OPS, the patients will usually randomly see any drs, unless they are willing to pay more for a FP appointment.

8 years GP and still going strong….

============
if you dont mind can share the rough breakdown of 200 k/year

Also, may I check does GPs hired by chains get yearly increments

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Drs are dispensable.
Nowadays nurse can do almost everything drs do

Except the surgeons.

So no need dr. Just surgeons and nurses

Ahh, the nurse finally found this thread. Oh gosh, where have they been.

I'm laojiao doctor who assess students, residents and even APN, i also dun dare to say i know everything and yet here we have someone who says a nurse is as good as a doctor.

Geee, shut down the 3 medical schools and train nurses ba.
Cheaper for everyone.
Send me your email, your brilliant ideas must be sent to the health minster. This genius is onto something here that no one has ever though off.

btw hor, some nurse practioner in UK can perform surgery independently. They are called surgical nurse practitioner.

use some brains la. the doctor job is not to do things. Its to find out what is going on , think and plan for the patient. Letting nurses who show some aptitude do a master of nursing and see patient independently within a restricted scope of practice doesn't mean they are doctors.
APNs are APNs - I supervise APNs in primary care. There are some good ones whose knowledge of common chronic disease exceed that of even some fam med residents but when patient complain of back ache or have a rash , refer to doctor liao because 'i know nuts about the skin'. Same as doctor meh? Same then u settle yourself la.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

============
if you dont mind can share the rough breakdown of 200 k/year

Also, may I check does GPs hired by chains get yearly increments

Currently one of the lucky ones to get mopex in ops (have worked in 2 different polyclinics so far through my mo years) . Read quite a lot of posts about polyclinic vs private gp world in this thread, can honestly see the pros and cons of each option.
But one thing that I have noticed is that there is not a lot of older Singaporeans (e.g above age 50) in polyclinic.
- for example, my current polyclinic, only the hod is Singaporean and above 50. Of course there are many older senior RPs there, but most of them are foreigners.
- there are many young fps (Singaporeans) in their early 30s who just completed mmed and have signed on with polyclinic, but I can't help but think why are people not staying for the long haul (Ie till retirement) if polyclinic is really comparable to outside gp land?

Contrast that to hospital setting, where virtually every department, you can see Singaporeans staying for the long haul (i.e all the way till senior consultant, emeritus consultant then retirement).

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Currently one of the lucky ones to get mopex in ops (have worked in 2 different polyclinics so far through my mo years) . Read quite a lot of posts about polyclinic vs private gp world in this thread, can honestly see the pros and cons of each option.
But one thing that I have noticed is that there is not a lot of older Singaporeans (e.g above age 50) in polyclinic.
- for example, my current polyclinic, only the hod is Singaporean and above 50. Of course there are many older senior RPs there, but most of them are foreigners.
- there are many young fps (Singaporeans) in their early 30s who just completed mmed and have signed on with polyclinic, but I can't help but think why are people not staying for the long haul (Ie till retirement) if polyclinic is really comparable to outside gp land?

Contrast that to hospital setting, where virtually every department, you can see Singaporeans staying for the long haul (i.e all the way till senior consultant, emeritus consultant then retirement).

the older ones are your mmed examiners why need to run gen pool with you?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

the older ones are your mmed examiners why need to run gen pool with you?

But they are not even in the roster at all though (not even under protected time, which is given to most mmed fps). Unless you tell me all the very seniors are based in hq/college level and not doing any clinical work then ok lo.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Currently one of the lucky ones to get mopex in ops (have worked in 2 different polyclinics so far through my mo years) . Read quite a lot of posts about polyclinic vs private gp world in this thread, can honestly see the pros and cons of each option.
But one thing that I have noticed is that there is not a lot of older Singaporeans (e.g above age 50) in polyclinic.
- for example, my current polyclinic, only the hod is Singaporean and above 50. Of course there are many older senior RPs there, but most of them are foreigners.
- there are many young fps (Singaporeans) in their early 30s who just completed mmed and have signed on with polyclinic, but I can't help but think why are people not staying for the long haul (Ie till retirement) if polyclinic is really comparable to outside gp land?

Contrast that to hospital setting, where virtually every department, you can see Singaporeans staying for the long haul (i.e all the way till senior consultant, emeritus consultant then retirement).

The real reason is tied to economics.
In the mid 1990s , fam med was popular until some EDB scholar decided that Singapore can be the Mayo of the east for medical tourism and hence begin a decade of hospital centric development.
we know how that turned out.
people who can pay will go to the real mayo.
people who can't pay goes to thailand or penang.

Almost no one do fam med during the period from 2000 to 2011 and as result there is a dearth of leaders in that generation. Back then , why bother to do fam med? just finish bond and go be a GP. Almost no one join the polyclinic for long, its either to gain experience or a hardship posting ( yes, it was a hardship posting).
No one want to join they end up recruiting from overseas resulting in the situation today.

Fam med residency started around 2011 or 2012 with first batch graduating in 2014/5. It started with total 50 resident island wide. Only now hit 100 or so.
So far only a good 6-7 batches.

The polyclinic space will grow with capitation model of funding.

In this thread, u mainly have a lot of MO.
As a MO, its a toss up between polyclinic or private GP land.
Salary same same on hourly basis. You are essentially selling time for money as a private GP. Want 200K per year ? work your evenings and weekends and PH.
Only problem is polyclinic hiring lesser and lesser of MO level perm staff.

by the time you have a m.med u are registrar level.
At that level, the polyclinic pay decently. You will be hard press to find a mostly 8-4:30 pm job with alternative saturday , 27-31 days annual leave , no evening and PH commitments with a similar salary. I have all the christmas, CNY holidays etc lei because polyclinic is CLOSED.
Hell, even if you chao keng MC also no problem. You try to take MC , emergency leave as an anchor running a GP clinic see what happens..

The work is different. GP scope of practice is really limited. Mostly acute work. Its either MC , msk or skin problems. Your chronic stuff is restricted to simple HTN, simple DM or asthma if at all.

In polyclinic, we can deal with the full spectrum of a lot of chronic disease. For acute cases, i can do a x ray for example. A lot of thing actually walk through the door. I diagnosis muscular dystrophy in a child with gowler sign to picking up renal bruit in hypertensive patient. I run specialty clinics as well. Depending on your clinic there is mental health clinic, memory clinic, geriatric clinic, tele-derm clinic etc. I think bukit batok even has a AF clinic.

While some might balk at research , teaching and admin, it is actually interesting work and give variety. GP you coop up in your room only lei. I like to teach and i do teach med students from year 3 to year 5 , residents and even GDFMers.
Research might not be your cup of tea but i find it ok. Some guys make it their career.
Admin is not too bad because you actually need to do some outside the box thinking to improve things.

So your observation might be true only for a while. More and more people are joining primary care in the polyclinic. So far i think no emeritus consultant yet though. Haha