How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Don’t compare Malaysia with SG. It’s a pathetic world out there in Malaysia. Yes it’s really that bad. Salary of a private GP in Malaysia is less than that of a registered nurse in Singapore after factoring in the exchange rate. That’s why medicine is dying in Malaysia. Who will want to spend so much time and money studying to be a doctor in Malaysia, when they can make more money as a school leaver plumber in Singapore?

Back to your question, the range is not fixed in private because you are running your own practice. But generally it’s at least 1.5-2 times higher than public.

60-70k MYR (20k)?? Lol.. even an AC in public makes more than that after factoring in clinical allowance/oncall/bonus… Shows you how badly bad doctors are in Malaysia. Even a private peds C only makes 20k a month…

So then how much is AC base pay? I thought its 12-15k, or has it been revised? Then with other allowances 18k monthly? Bonus don't include for monthly pay la.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Nice. Finally someone with a heart. You never too late la. CH will always welcome anyone who is interested!

No need do another PGD. If you want, u should go do the certificate in community hospital medicine as a revision
s://.cfps.org.sg/programmes/certificate-of-community-hospital-practice-cchp/

You should just need to contact the CH you are interested in.
Very likely they will put you as junior for a trial period ( need to do calls and all) before okay-ing you to be a senior.
I was in ops for 2 years or so before i went to interview for CH. Because i wasn't from their cluster and they don't know me, they require me to do junior for 3 months, but paid as senior reg ).

You will likely take a pay cut from your current job FYI until u FCFP and become at least a AC.

CH not easy. They are know as post acute care and continuing care nowadays. Last time can have simple cases like post TKR physio , post hospitalization deconditioning etc but these are all push to transition care facilities liao.

Depending on your cluster and proximity to a acute hospital ( and how pack that hospital is), you can get quite "hot cases" which isn't very fair because the Dr and Nursing to patient ratio is much lower. The work can be tough. Eg KTPH is always very packed, so YCH work has always been very challenging ( now WH is up, maybe life will be better ).
St luke is stand alone deep in bukit batok, so they are not subjected to such push down from the tertiary hospital. Singhealth has got a community hospital system anchored very strongly by FPs. JCH cannot find FP people to join, so now they take internist , geriatrician and rehab med folks ( i feel long term no good la...end up these specialist will be gungho and take all sorts of hotter cases turning JCH into a mini NTFGH gen med liao)

You might want to consider home care or transition care work. NTUC sometimes has a role for hybrid clinic patient and home care ( visit) job. I believe with healthier SG , some PCN also looking out for doctors who are willing or want to deal with more complex patients

Alternatively, can i interest u in a polyclinic career ?
It's very varied and interesting work.
For example, I'm 3.5 days patient fronting. My clinical work can be as simple as writing a referral letter for a patient requesting for subsidized care to handling multimorbid patient with difficult financial and social circumstance in addition to their complex medical conditions ( thank god not a lot).
I ran special clinics as well - health and mind where i only look after depressed / anxious patient, memory clinic for demented patients and now and then i have a day where i do procedures ( nail avulsion, lumps and bumps etc).
I do policy work as well . Haha, cannot reveal too much else people can guess who i am.
I educate. I teach FM residents and APN interns. Am supervisors for rotating residents. Teach and assess medical students at all levels.

But hor, i'm not making those legendary aesthetic salary la. Not even near some recent GP figure of 600K or that magical fellow who work like 2-3 days a week and can make 500K / year.

Not the OP, but saw this when I was scrolling through the pages. You sound quite senior/experienced. Would you say that polyclinic is probably the only setting within the public setting whereby fcfp is not absolutely required? Other settings like CH or transitional care, home care, hospice etc need fcfp?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So then how much is AC base pay? I thought its 12-15k, or has it been revised? Then with other allowances 18k monthly? Bonus don't include for monthly pay la.

Base + Clinical allowance is 16-22k

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Base + Clinical allowance is 16-22k

What is clinical allowance for? IM AC 16k base?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Base + Clinical allowance is 16-22k

All in is how much?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So then how much is AC base pay? I thought its 12-15k, or has it been revised? Then with other allowances 18k monthly? Bonus don't include for monthly pay la.

Non procedure ( Emergency Medicine ) Singhealth 1st year AC

Base around 10.5-11k approx + 5600 extra allowance monthly + 4 x night shifts ( 300-400 per shift + weekends if working ( 160 per shift) .

Bonus + CERA extra

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Non procedure ( Emergency Medicine ) Singhealth 1st year AC

Base around 10.5-11k approx + 5600 extra allowance monthly + 4 x night shifts ( 300-400 per shift + weekends if working ( 160 per shift) .

Bonus + CERA extra

Overall comp a month around 20k excluding bonuses and performance component. Most AC are 250-300k with sone higher

Quite decent but the 160 per weekend shift is a pittance that’s just an hour of work for a locum

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Overall comp a month around 20k excluding bonuses and performance component. Most AC are 250-300k with sone higher

Quite decent but the 160 per weekend shift is a pittance that’s just an hour of work for a locum

Thats decent. But wow didn't know the base is so low. What exactly is the 5600 allowance for?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thats decent. But wow didn't know the base is so low. What exactly is the 5600 allowance for?

it’s a sepcialty dependent clinical allowance. Ranges from 5-11k on top of the base based on specialty. Base goes up after 2 years at C level

Originally Posted by Unregistered

it’s a sepcialty dependent clinical allowance. Ranges from 5-11k on top of the base based on specialty. Base goes up after 2 years at C level

Interesting. So what's the base at C level? 16k? So bonus is calculated based on the base, not including clinical allowance?