How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Anyone has/knows the latest 2020/2021 salaries of doctors in private/public sector?

Public Sector (TTSH, SGH, NUH)
Senior Con:
Con:
Assc Con:
Senior Resident:
MOPEX/Junior Resident:

Private Sector
Mount E/Gleneagles Consultant:
Raffles/Parkway GP:
Hospice, NH RP:
Telemedicine GP (Dr Anywhere/WhiteCoat):


Thank you!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Anyone has/knows the latest 2020/2021 salaries of doctors in private/public sector?

Public Sector (TTSH, SGH, NUH)
Senior Con: 50k pm
Con: 30k pm
Assc Con: 20k pm
Senior Resident: 15k pm
MOPEX/Junior Resident: 10k pm

Private Sector
Mount E/Gleneagles Consultant: 100k pm
Raffles/Parkway GP: 25kpm
Hospice, NH RP: 3k pm
Telemedicine GP (Dr Anywhere/WhiteCoat): 10k pm


Thank you!

As above. 10 characters

Originally Posted by Unregistered

As above. 10 characters

er.. pls dont bluff if you dont hv the values
im a junior resident and I dont get 10k/month lol
i get about 6k including call pay

Originally Posted by Unregistered

er.. pls dont bluff if you dont hv the values
im a junior resident and I dont get 10k/month lol
i get about 6k including call pay

That's coz u not hard working enough and don't locum.
U see u only got 1 call per week. So what do you do with the rest of the evenings?

U spend 3nights studying. Left with another 3 nights for work.
Plus u have one free weekend day.
You don't tell me u got party , dinner and have fun?
年青人，少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲

Hey guys really hoping to get some advice. Im 5 years into a job as an engineer and thinking to pursue medicine either in Duke NUS or in europe (where i know i might not be able to come back). Is just wanting to "help people" too naive a reason to enter medicine? Does anyone know how life in Duke NUS is like?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hey guys really hoping to get some advice. Im 5 years into a job as an engineer and thinking to pursue medicine either in Duke NUS or in europe (where i know i might not be able to come back). Is just wanting to "help people" too naive a reason to enter medicine? Does anyone know how life in Duke NUS is like?

Yes.
Too naive.
I was an engineer too. Spend 200k to study overseas.
Duke not much cheaper if u no scholarship.

Pls study at a university u can come back to, ie on second schedule.
Priorities change and u always want to be able to come back.
Nowadays harder to backdoor in with mrcp or mrcs liao.

Why bother helping people one at a time by being a doctor?
An engineer creates innovative solutions that improves lives of millions

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes.
Too naive.
I was an engineer too. Spend 200k to study overseas.
Duke not much cheaper if u no scholarship.

Pls study at a university u can come back to, ie on second schedule.
Priorities change and u always want to be able to come back.
Nowadays harder to backdoor in with mrcp or mrcs liao.

Hello, thanks for the reply. You were an engineer too? Was it worth it?
Engineering just seems to lack a certain human touch for me? I like sciences and I like people, so I set my mind to pursue medicine. But this forum is making me kinda confused and worried (?) Feels like singaporean doctors have a really hard life

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hello, thanks for the reply. You were an engineer too? Was it worth it?
Engineering just seems to lack a certain human touch for me? I like sciences and I like people, so I set my mind to pursue medicine. But this forum is making me kinda confused and worried (?) Feels like singaporean doctors have a really hard life

Define worth it.

Singapore Medicine not very humanistic la.
I'm a fam physician and i work in a polyclinic where i see 50 patients a day.
Today i have a patient 68 years old who has cerebral palsy. Brought in by her 60 year old sister.
Her case is simple, just check some blood, make sure her kidneys function didnt fail so that the anti-convulsants she is on dont kill her.
however her sister has a lot of questions ( covid vaccination, this and that) and also requested like 8 other standby medication ( creams, cough med etc).
I got somewhat irritated, but ok, let do it.
Then the sister whip out her own queue chit and requested to be seen also. Her appointment time is actually 2 hours away.

I lost it. My tone change, i frown at her , sigh at her, tsk at her.
End up this poor sister keep apologizing to me for jumping the queue. I did consulted her medical problem eventually, but in a slipshod way.

Right now , i'm guilty as anything as im drinking my wine.
Thinking back, i asked myself why this happen.
What happen to my compassion? Care for patient.

Then i realised it because i need to see 50 patients a day. Every second count
Do you know MOH give each patient 10 mins per slot at the polyclinic.

10 minutes. come into room, tell me her problems ( note the plural) , i have to clarify many things, examine her, order medicine, type out my notes.

ALL IN TEN MINTUES.
Do this 45 times a day.
How to be humanistic?

Got once, i meet this old chap in polyclinic. He is 75, hanging on to his life with stage 3 prostrate cancer and have parkinson. He looks uneducated but is immensely intelligent.
It was raining and not very busy, so i kapo a bit
I noted that he defaulted many of this appointment.
I ask him why
He says he doesnt like the doctor in the hospital, cos they dun have care for the patient.
' 没有爱心‘ was his exact words.

In that spur of the moment, i told him 爱心是有限的.
You are my 41st patient of the day liao. If i give u all the 爱心 you all want, i will be dry liao. 医生也是人。We all want you to be well, but we cant manja you all the time

Last i check , he actually went back to see his urologist and neurologist. haha

This is a difficult but interesting field la
Go for it. Only 1 life. Do it.

but hor, see my advice above. Go to a med school Singapore recognise.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Define worth it.

Singapore Medicine not very humanistic la.
I'm a fam physician and i work in a polyclinic where i see 50 patients a day.
Today i have a patient 68 years old who has cerebral palsy. Brought in by her 60 year old sister.
Her case is simple, just check some blood, make sure her kidneys function didnt fail so that the anti-convulsants she is on dont kill her.
however her sister has a lot of questions ( covid vaccination, this and that) and also requested like 8 other standby medication ( creams, cough med etc).
I got somewhat irritated, but ok, let do it.
Then the sister whip out her own queue chit and requested to be seen also. Her appointment time is actually 2 hours away.

I lost it. My tone change, i frown at her , sigh at her, tsk at her.
End up this poor sister keep apologizing to me for jumping the queue. I did consulted her medical problem eventually, but in a slipshod way.

Right now , i'm guilty as anything as im drinking my wine.
Thinking back, i asked myself why this happen.
What happen to my compassion? Care for patient.

Then i realised it because i need to see 50 patients a day. Every second count
Do you know MOH give each patient 10 mins per slot at the polyclinic.

10 minutes. come into room, tell me her problems ( note the plural) , i have to clarify many things, examine her, order medicine, type out my notes.

ALL IN TEN MINTUES.
Do this 45 times a day.
How to be humanistic?

Got once, i meet this old chap in polyclinic. He is 75, hanging on to his life with stage 3 prostrate cancer and have parkinson. He looks uneducated but is immensely intelligent.
It was raining and not very busy, so i kapo a bit
I noted that he defaulted many of this appointment.
I ask him why
He says he doesnt like the doctor in the hospital, cos they dun have care for the patient.
' 没有爱心‘ was his exact words.

In that spur of the moment, i told him 爱心是有限的.
You are my 41st patient of the day liao. If i give u all the 爱心 you all want, i will be dry liao. 医生也是人。We all want you to be well, but we cant manja you all the time

Last i check , he actually went back to see his urologist and neurologist. haha

This is a difficult but interesting field la
Go for it. Only 1 life. Do it.

but hor, see my advice above. Go to a med school Singapore recognise.

Totally agree with you. Can tell you definitely work Polyclinic. Nowadays only need to see 50? Used to be 70!

A few more points:

1) Seeing patients ie busting your butt to try to get through 50-70 patients in 8-9 hours is viewed as BASIC work. No kudos. No bonus. No accolades. No acknowledgement. No recognition. No rewards. In fact people say your job is "easy".
2) Bonus and recognition does NOT come from treating patients well and getting them results ie well managed or cured. Zip. Nada. As long as nothing bad ie no negligence, no mistakes can oredi. As my former Head of Polyclinic said "our job is to see the patient as quick as possible safely and then get them out the room so we can see the next one"
3) Bonus and recognition comes from other things like projects, research, other roles and responsibilities ON TOP of busting your butt seeing 50-70 patients wanting your love and care and concern = SUPER DRAINING
4) Rob Peter's time to pay Paul. HOD watches the queues and Polyclinic. If there is a room that is behind on waiting times they will ask why? Bad for the doctor's performance. So if you spent more time on Paul then you spend less time on Peter to try to catch up. But what if Peter is also another needy FON patient with lots of questions?
5) Humanistic? I guarantee you after you have to talk to 50-70 people everyday......that means 275-385 people a week , 1100 -1540 a month. That's a lot of people. And from all walks of life. Don't be surprised you find many characteristics of humans that make you dislike humans. Selfish. Self centred. Stubborn. Arrogant. Quarrelsome, Victim mentality etc etc
6) What a "good" doctor is to patients is not usually steeped in the science and how you actually treat them with medicine. It is a lot of BS sweet talk "human touch" nonsense that sometimes borders on lying to them giving them false hope, false sense of security and reassurance, friendly love and stuff. Makes you wonder why you had to go through all those years of training only to do the non-EBM things that make patients happy but doesn't harm them either. Placebos.
7) It is one patient at a time. And it is tiresome. There is no leverage. You can never see more than one patient at a time or help one person at a time. Goes against the ethics and privacy guidelines and you will get into trouble for it. Engineers can invent or build things that benefit thousands.
8) Each patient pays very little in the overall picture. And they usually pay a flat rate for your unlimited (limited by you) time. My analogy is that of prostitute. You wanna be the prostitute that services 50 clients a day each paying $20? Or the prostitute that goes for high net worth clients charging $5000 a night?

Go find work in finance. It is by far the best field to be in SG.