How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

For those not yet applying for medical school.....please please please......don't be dr. It is a bad lifestyle and the money is not great. Don't say old timer Dr never warn you.
For those already in medical school or finished med school ......too bad. Agree with above poster. Try to specialize. If you are brave and have resources buy out the bond and go do something else. Don't waste your life ahead.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

For those not yet applying for medical school.....please please please......don't be dr. It is a bad lifestyle and the money is not great. Don't say old timer Dr never warn you.
For those already in medical school or finished med school ......too bad. Agree with above poster. Try to specialize. If you are brave and have resources buy out the bond and go do something else. Don't waste your life ahead.

Dear old timer, what if I achieve financial freedom at 30 plus and have nothing to do every day? Can I apply for medicine ?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Dear old timer, what if I achieve financial freedom at 30 plus and have nothing to do every day? Can I apply for medicine ?

Haha! Go ahead. You sucker for punishment. But may not be bad also if you enjoy the work. You can work very ad hoc. But still need to go through medical school all the studying memorizing and exams. Then housemanship. You can pay off bond early then you do whatever you want. Depends what you want in life. Seems to long for me personally to be fun and worth it. Go travel the world. Enjoy your life lah. Don't have to be Dr. Really what's the big deal about it?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Haha! Go ahead. You sucker for punishment. But may not be bad also if you enjoy the work. You can work very ad hoc. But still need to go through medical school all the studying memorizing and exams. Then housemanship. You can pay off bond early then you do whatever you want. Depends what you want in life. Seems to long for me personally to be fun and worth it. Go travel the world. Enjoy your life lah. Don't have to be Dr. Really what's the big deal about it?

R u a doctor? Ppl who enjoy life everyday will also ask u whats the big deal about enjoying life.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

R u a doctor? Ppl who enjoy life everyday will also ask u whats the big deal about enjoying life.

Huh? Ok lah. Obvious you are not enjoying life lah. Like I said you sucker for punishment. Go. Go study medicine and be doctor and work in hospital clinics and serve people. go. Please.

Is the 10.8k before tax?
And what’s the patient load and what type of cases do we see there?
I’m conditional L3 which they say they are ok to hire but not sure what are the differences
What would u recommend?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is the 10.8k before tax?
And what’s the patient load and what type of cases do we see there?
I’m conditional L3 which they say they are ok to hire but not sure what are the differences
What would u recommend?

Duh. U from overseas ah

See cough cold runny nose , back pain, knee pain. Maybe long long time one simple htn or hld case. Rarely asthma. Sometimes got uti, std, pimple , ****** request. Lots of maids check up. Your most powerful treatment tool is the signature on the MC.
Ah bo u expect to do what? Angiogram, hernia repair? Seriously.

L3 ? Tong Ur time la . You cross over they drop one level for u to l2. Not that got any diff since l2 can go full reg. But they have Ur neck for the next 5 years. Do Ur mohh time la. Hospital system easy to make friends and get full reg. Meet one guai Lan con don't want sign u off no problem, u will rotate elsewhere. In raffles, Ur sector head dislike u, u gg Liao...forever don't sign u off. 5 years later u still l3.

Use Ur brain a little la raffles forever hiring. Meaning people forever quitting also. Why pple quit if it's good.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Smaller chain pays better but u have to hit the ground running which after 5 years as a hospital mo, u can't one. Your experience as locum can only prepare u so much. Locum no responsibility , as long as patient dun die or complain to SMC , u ok. in gp land with Ur own clinic , u anyhow patient really dun come back one and you swat flies lo. Very soon u close or pple show u the door.
Expect about 12 to 15k for the other chains, but they offer less personal development.

Dun look to gp as the way out la. Now not good time to be gp. You go see SMC report, the additional of private gp number is really small. Market v tight. Chronic disease u cannot fight polyclinic price, complicated condition patient want specialist or go polyclinic also. u left to do acute condition and then kenna squeeze by TPA, landlord and competition. New entrants very hard.

Listen to old uncle here and tong in hospital, somehow get into a training, anything. You finish any LJ specilaissation even occupation med or psy u will be miles ahead of the hired gp. If cannot, look for , hospital clinician job , community hospital rp job slowly work up. Can do data analytics, health informatics stuff etc. The essence is to look for 8 to 5 job and no calls. If need to round early or do overnight call ask them go fly kite.
Most rp starts about 8k, add on a post grad 1k more and annually u nearly 120 to 130k Liao. Same salary, more time on your hands , 10am drink cofeee , no evening work and recession free. Annual leave 26 days, Christmas and cny additional half day. Can attend conference , claim ptf. Medical insurance cme practicing certificate employer settle for u. Private gp all this u settle Ur self priming

Thanks for sharing your insight. Would you recommend ops over private chain salaried gp?
Currently a ops mopex, going to finish my 5 year bond next Feb (Aussie grad). Have full reg already, doing gfdm exams in Jan.
My ops head offered me RP, but I am not sure if I should take it. Basic salary (8k) definitely lower than private chain but I haven't take into account bonus and other benefits.

Personally I prefer seeing patient with simpler problems, (i.e back pain, urti etc) rather than cracking my head over the complex chronic issues. In fact as mopex we are graded also on the number of cases we see, so I see Chao keng NSF I very happy. Can sent out in 2min lol.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for sharing your insight. Would you recommend ops over private chain salaried gp?
Currently a ops mopex, going to finish my 5 year bond next Feb (Aussie grad). Have full reg already, doing gfdm exams in Jan.
My ops head offered me RP, but I am not sure if I should take it. Basic salary (8k) definitely lower than private chain but I haven't take into account bonus and other benefits.

Personally I prefer seeing patient with simpler problems, (i.e back pain, urti etc) rather than cracking my head over the complex chronic issues. In fact as mopex we are graded also on the number of cases we see, so I see Chao keng NSF I very happy. Can sent out in 2min lol.

OPS vs GP / chain
OPS:
- no nights, Sat half day
- if you are sick / on leave: take MC no need to find locum replacement. leave need to deconflict with other OPS colleagues
- patients: many complex chronics, including geriatric patients 90+ years old. also various other specialised services like maternal / child clinic, memory clinic, health mind clinic, etc
- career progression / variety: you can do teaching / admin / research / pure clinical
- AL: usu about 26 days depending on your seniority
- salary: progressive salary RP 8k / GDFM 9k / MMed 10k monthly, not including sign on bonus with GDFM / MMed and several months of bonus each year.
with GDFM your total annual renumeration will probably hit about $130-140k (if you want to compare with private, divide this by 13: private pays you usu base pay x 12 months and some will pay 13th month AWS)

GP:
- burn some nights and weekends, unless you work in those health screening office hour jobs (tend to pay slightly lesser too)
- sick / on leave: sometimes need to find your own locum replacement. some chains require you to deconflict leave with the rest of the anchors if they have their own internal regular locum pool.
- patients: tend to be more straight forward, simple acute cases. but because you are a GP, you need to provide good customer service and PR to get the word out and build your reputation.
- career progression / variety: mostly pure clinical work. big groups allow you some progression in terms of admin / management, manpower arrangements.
AL: some start from 14 to 18 days..
- salary: depending on the number of hours you work and nature of the clinic work, can range from 10k to 15k on average. some smaller groups may pay you slightly higher. some offer profit sharing scheme / equity sharing.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for sharing your insight. Would you recommend ops over private chain salaried gp?
Currently a ops mopex, going to finish my 5 year bond next Feb (Aussie grad). Have full reg already, doing gfdm exams in Jan.
My ops head offered me RP, but I am not sure if I should take it. Basic salary (8k) definitely lower than private chain but I haven't take into account bonus and other benefits.

Personally I prefer seeing patient with simpler problems, (i.e back pain, urti etc) rather than cracking my head over the complex chronic issues. In fact as mopex we are graded also on the number of cases we see, so I see Chao keng NSF I very happy. Can sent out in 2min lol.

Bloody hell. Chao mopexer like you who spoil market and these nsf keep coming back for more.
I mark down any of my rp/fp if I catch them doing it. U in my clinic I confirm u no job. Hire u to write MC I might as well let my apn do the job.
Pls la, while this nsf Chao keng, u not doing Ur work if u aid them. Come in urti 4 times a month and u still swab them without checking more?

Minimally I expect u to call their camp superior and ask if there's an problem.