How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm not an Australian GP but I am curious as a med student so did some quick Google-fu and found that Australian GPs job sites advertised rates are at $200/hour for FRACGP fellows. Based on OP's hours, that is $200/hour x 40 hours/week x 52 weeks = $416,000. Even after 30 percent tax, that is more than local GPs. Big tickets items in Australia like cars and property are less than half of ours and a home is not an overpriced 99 years leasehold.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe only pharmacists can legally sell meds in Australia unlike Singapore, so that's an additional source of income for Australian GPs if the Australian government legalise it like Singapore in future? I'm thinking of doing an overseas elective in Australia just to find out what life there is like as a GP.

Australia will never allow GPs to dispense medicine as it is a conflict of interest professionally. The Pharmacist Professional Body will also protest against such a move as it infringes on their professional role too.

I think the $416,000 is the best of the best case scenarios. If you actually apply the real remuneration is around $200-300,000 pre tax. Even if we want to use the best case scenario of $416,000 it is not really possible given all the public holidays and often during Xmas and New Year it is rather more quiet. Nevertheless, if you use the $416,000

From the tax calculator

Your taxable income: $416,000
Income tax payable: $157,867
Medicare levy payable: $8,320
Your income after tax & Medicare levy: $249,813
Your marginal tax rate: 45%
This means for an annual income of $416,000 you pay:

No tax on income between $1 - $18,200 $0
19c for every dollar between $18,201 - $45,000 $5,092
32.5c for every dollar between $45,001 - $120,000 $24,375
37c for every dollar between $120,001 - $180,000 $22,200
45c for every dollar over $180,000 $106,200
Income tax payable $157,867

So that's about $250,000 after tax. And this is the best case scenario.

The more realistic after tax income from a pre-tax income/billing takings after splits $200-300,000 would be between $135,000 - $188,000

You can incorporate your medical practice and choose to only pay yourself how much you need or want per annum out of that corporation. So your earnings go into the corp. The corp pays corporate taxes on that amount. You pay yourself out from the corp. So let's say you only need $75,000 a year. Then you only need to pay yourself $100,000 for the year out of the $416,000 you earned. Your personal income tax for that year is then $22,967 instead of $157,867. Think of it as saving some pre tax money in your corp for retirement. Later on when your work is reduced, you can still pay that $75,000 over many years and pay lower taxes than take that higher one time hit. Remember tax rates are tiered. The higher the income for that FY, when you hit above $180,000 every dollar above that is 45% taxed.

The advantage with Australia is the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in some categories

s://.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Singapore&country2=Aus tralia&city1=Singapore&city2=Melbourne&tracking=ge tDispatchComparison


Cooked food and eating out will cost you more
Beer will cost less
Groceries is a mixed bag. Local produce like Milk and Eggs will be cheaper but otherwise is comparable to SG

Much more affordable is a car
Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) 140,000.00 S$
(146,086.71 A$) 29,219.63 S$
(30,490.00 A$) -79.13 %
Toyota Corolla Sedan 1.6l 97kW Comfort (Or Equivalent New Car) 125,306.56 S$
(130,754.45 A$) 26,925.58 S$
(28,096.21 A$) -78.51 %

Utilities are higher in Melbourne
So is going to the cinema
Childcare is also more expensive

rent is much cheaper in Melbourne than SG (this we all know)
Same with buying a house or condo/apartment

So nothing surprising. You income (post tax) is likely to be less than if you stay in Singapore. Besides housing and car, the costs of living in Australia will be slightly higher than in SG. But the lower cost of housing and cars makes it more reachable if that's what your goals are.

I think the main reason people move from Singapore is not about money. It is about the lifestyle. Truthfully, if you move as a doctor to anywhere else you are most likely to have DROP in your income.

So I find it strange when drs come here talking about salaries and indicating they will earn MORE. Sorry to burst that bubble.

anybody know of a david tan yu li that goes around in nuh scrubs?

hello seniors, anyone ever heard of someone quitting residency and got into another residency before? I have serious doubts about my specialty of choice and wondering what are my chances of switching into another specialty. The alternative is to go out to GP land I guess.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hello seniors, anyone ever heard of someone quitting residency and got into another residency before? I have serious doubts about my specialty of choice and wondering what are my chances of switching into another specialty. The alternative is to go out to GP land I guess.

Used to be possible to quit specialty residency and then go into Fam Med. But nowadays Fam Med very popular.

So these days very hard to switch. If you switch they all look at you as a quitter usually dowan you.

So stick to what you are in now or go GP land. It's a bit like enter med school already then thinking of not doing medicine anymore. Unheard of right? It's the same philosophy they want you to have. Get in already trapped forever can't escape!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not sure of this is the right thread to ask, but does anyone know if it is easy to get gp/FM training jobs overseas in English speaking countries like UK, Canada, USA, Australia, new Zealand.

I am thinking of going overseas to practice for a while and potentially migrate there for good. I understand that I will have to redo all training and the pay likely not as good as Singapore. But I am just bored of Singapore and it's healthcare tbh.

(Background: I studied in UK but left after FY1 back in 2016)

For UK I think you have to go back and finish FY2 or if you got MRCP/other competencies can try to get a CREST form signed off. Probably need to restart your GMC membership etc. Only after that (completed of foundation programme/CREST) can you apply for specialty training. It is very easy to get GP training now, no interview, just study for an exam called MSRA. 50% SJT type question and 50% clinical knowledge (GP type of knowledge e.g. contraception). Based on how you score you are ranked against all candidates and you rank all your job locations.

After finishing UK GP training, can go to Canada, Aus, NZ quite easily, all recognise UK GP training. No need USMLE equivalent for Canada. Think it is worth a consideration. If not live the locum GP life. Can probably live well in a LCOL area or even the Highlands/Scottish Islands type of rural life if you want.

source: got a GP offer in a good location but doing another more competitive specialty that needed to do the MSRA exam

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hello seniors, anyone ever heard of someone quitting residency and got into another residency before? I have serious doubts about my specialty of choice and wondering what are my chances of switching into another specialty. The alternative is to go out to GP land I guess.

Got. but quitting a residency always becomes a red flag. The first question your PD ask will be why u quit and are you gonna quit on me?

Residency is always tough, thats the whole point, put u under stress , u learn and become better.
Anyway, if are thinking that fam med residency is easy, hold your horses.
The only thing easy about it is that is 3 years and u have half a year to prepare for exit ( while working in a busy polyclinic).
many of my FM batch mates has spouses in other specialties. Most of the consensus is that fam med is quite draining and now where easier.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Got. but quitting a residency always becomes a red flag. The first question your PD ask will be why u quit and are you gonna quit on me?

Residency is always tough, thats the whole point, put u under stress , u learn and become better.
Anyway, if are thinking that fam med residency is easy, hold your horses.
The only thing easy about it is that is 3 years and u have half a year to prepare for exit ( while working in a busy polyclinic).
many of my FM batch mates has spouses in other specialties. Most of the consensus is that fam med is quite draining and now where easier.

thanks for your reply. which residency did they switch into? is it fam med?

I agree fam med is tough. When I was a HO I've seen fam med residents rotating into a different department every 3 months and struggling to adjust each time. But compared to other specialties with busy calls and demanding exams, i think fam med is still a more attractive option (esp if FPs in OPS really earn more than ACs in hospital...)

I feel that I might not have enough aptitude for my current specialty. I'm going to give myself more time to decide whether to continue but wanted more info to weigh my options.

From a pure practice pragmatic perspective I find Fam Med the most boh hua. On one hand you supposed to bao ke liao. Make you learn so many things in great breadth. How much depth you want to go is actually also up to you. No end one. But on the other hand even if you had the breadth and depth, they make it such that you cannot really charge like a specialist or do work that specialist can do. What for man? You see complex multiple medical problem patient spend 30 min but you can only charge for like 5-10 min worth. So you know so much for what? Pride? I think if the plan is stay in the public sector and climb rank play politics and get posts then ok la do MMed Fam Med. Otherwise forget it lah go GP land and just churn the volume. Take all the easiest cases. Difficult cases send to OPS. Also the medication much cheaper if such patients got so many meds one go OPS.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

From a pure practice pragmatic perspective I find Fam Med the most boh hua. On one hand you supposed to bao ke liao. Make you learn so many things in great breadth. How much depth you want to go is actually also up to you. No end one. But on the other hand even if you had the breadth and depth, they make it such that you cannot really charge like a specialist or do work that specialist can do. What for man? You see complex multiple medical problem patient spend 30 min but you can only charge for like 5-10 min worth. So you know so much for what? Pride? I think if the plan is stay in the public sector and climb rank play politics and get posts then ok la do MMed Fam Med. Otherwise forget it lah go GP land and just churn the volume. Take all the easiest cases. Difficult cases send to OPS. Also the medication much cheaper if such patients got so many meds one go OPS.

m.med why Bo hua?
in ops , the annual package almost equivalent to a non procedure ac who need spend at least 5. u getting it at year 3.5 afte passing the exit.
u become hired gp churn patients no point la. but eventually solo, having more knowledge will show.
u want to make 12k as a hired hand forever or build a patient base that u can gradually charge more as a practice owner?
ops difficult cases we also just refer ma to be honest. a lot of things like urinary incontinence , menopause I can manage but I also refer. eczema, acne patient say want see derm I v happy. put patient request and refer. soc also need quota, but those who dun want soc I can treat it as well..and I dare say even better than soc becuase with the experience with patients I can read them v well and know what's missing.
soc sometimes focus too much on the medicine but forget the human sitting Infront of them.

Has anyone tried working for telemedicine companies? How is remuneration like?