How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can explain how? All jobs have their upsides and downsides. Even GPs slacker ones earn very comfortably compared to some lower paying white collar jobs. At the very least, got condo and lower end Conti car standards, especially if your spouse is also an income earner.

He will tell with his doctor intellect, he could have become CEO and made million per year.

so many apologists here. who says residency means mmed? can they even pass? GDFM are family physicians at least.

so sad you think this way...even if you are not compassionate you must like what you do either meeting patients wanting to heal them or at least sympathise and empathise with them. Or treating it as abit of a SCI fi to find out what's wrong with them .
If not you not going to last the next 30 years of practice then best to get out now and find what really makes you satisfied!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

so many apologists here. who says residency means mmed? can they even pass? GDFM are family physicians at least.

I’m the guy who replied OP.
Tbh I never said one was better than the other.
Which is why I asked the OP “better” in what sense?
I only said which is more suited for the profile of patients in private or public sector.

And also, qualifications do not make a doctor.
All these are just titles.
What matters most is your attitude and heart, doing what’s best for the patients.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I’m the guy who replied OP.
Tbh I never said one was better than the other.
Which is why I asked the OP “better” in what sense?
I only said which is more suited for the profile of patients in private or public sector.

And also, qualifications do not make a doctor.
All these are just titles.
What matters most is your attitude and heart, doing what’s best for the patients.

so you are saying ‘residents’ who fail mmed are equal to doctors than gdfm family physicians?

What a joke. delusional. cant pass exams dont join the FP register please

Originally Posted by Unregistered

so you are saying ‘residents’ who fail mmed are equal to doctors than gdfm family physicians?

What a joke. delusional. cant pass exams dont join the FP register please

Experience counts.
A resident who exit residency but dun pass m.med is way better than someone who pass gdfm.
I teach and assess gdfmers okay. The expectation of gdfm is different. It's really nothing more than ensuring they at least know something and is safe. Giving them fp registration is the only way we can encourage the gp to take up gdfm and on paper elevate our primary care strength. The earlier gdfm was so easy, a MBBS would have pass. Only this year standard start to be raised as per original white paper...
Go and ask Ur gdfmer what changes are afoot.

A resident has to undergo clinical competency criteria before we advanced him year on year. This is based on mult faceted assessment by preceptors , in training exam, speciality rotation feedback etc. The m.med is a high stakes exam, we don't allow everyone to pass. They dun pass thier m.med but having pass ccc , their standard is actually very good liao.


It's u who is delusional who think gdfm fp are of good standard. With some experience maybe but of equal years no fight Pls la. Dun kid urself.
Ego brusied go one corner lick it. Dun come and embarrass urself

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Experience counts.
A resident who exit residency but dun pass m.med is way better than someone who pass gdfm.
I teach and assess gdfmers okay. The expectation of gdfm is different. It's really nothing more than ensuring they at least know something and is safe. Giving them fp registration is the only way we can encourage the gp to take up gdfm and on paper elevate our primary care strength. The earlier gdfm was so easy, a MBBS would have pass. Only this year standard start to be raised as per original white paper...
Go and ask Ur gdfmer what changes are afoot.

A resident has to undergo clinical competency criteria before we advanced him year on year. This is based on mult faceted assessment by preceptors , in training exam, speciality rotation feedback etc. The m.med is a high stakes exam, we don't allow everyone to pass. They dun pass thier m.med but having pass ccc , their standard is actually very good liao.


It's u who is delusional who think gdfm fp are of good standard. With some experience maybe but of equal years no fight Pls la. Dun kid urself.
Ego brusied go one corner lick it. Dun come and embarrass urself

Thanks for your reply. I am actually a R4 preparing for the upcoming mmed in 1 month. Really think I will fail (ironically I actually completed gdfm as well during my residency years). Good to know that people still recognize our residency training (and the effort we put in) even if we don't finish mmed.

You are right, mmed is a very high stakes exam, not so much the difficulty, but I think it's the only registrar level exam that is only held once a year, and each trainee is only allowed 3 attempts (unlike mrcp which allows up to 7 attempts for each part). The opportunity cost for failing is high (essentially you stuck as mopex or RP for another year, while your peers who pass become fp and are placed on a different career tract).
Personally I think I will leave the public sector if I fail this time around (probably try as a private candidate next year). But good to know that at least someone recognizes our residency training.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for your reply. I am actually a R4 preparing for the upcoming mmed in 1 month. Really think I will fail (ironically I actually completed gdfm as well during my residency years). Good to know that people still recognize our residency training (and the effort we put in) even if we don't finish mmed.

You are right, mmed is a very high stakes exam, not so much the difficulty, but I think it's the only registrar level exam that is only held once a year, and each trainee is only allowed 3 attempts (unlike mrcp which allows up to 7 attempts for each part). The opportunity cost for failing is high (essentially you stuck as mopex or RP for another year, while your peers who pass become fp and are placed on a different career tract).
Personally I think I will leave the public sector if I fail this time around (probably try as a private candidate next year). But good to know that at least someone recognizes our residency training.

Work hard will pass one la.
M.med is not the be or none. Polyclinic m.med salary gives u little incentive to leave.
U still get v good training in residency and will show up when u do Ur work
My batch failed m.med one all doing well lei.
Other than the girls who work 8 to 5 and become mother, the most bey gan one anchoring clinic also pay more tax than my average one month salary
The best one got 5 clinic under his name. He plan to sell out in 5 years and retire.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Work hard will pass one la.
M.med is not the be or none. Polyclinic m.med salary gives u little incentive to leave.
U still get v good training in residency and will show up when u do Ur work
My batch failed m.med one all doing well lei.
Other than the girls who work 8 to 5 and become mother, the most bey gan one anchoring clinic also pay more tax than my average one month salary
The best one got 5 clinic under his name. He plan to sell out in 5 years and retire.

The R4 who posted earlier. Always good/reassuring to hear that there will still be food on the table without mmed. Lol

But on a serious note, if I am unable to pass mmed, (i.e after 3 tries) would it better for me to leave polyclinic and join gp the long run career wise as I am not sure if there is a future for gdfm pple in ops (given that they are accepting so many residents nowadays)

Similarly if I do pass mmed, I know the pay in ops is decent. However would life outside be better/easier (if one ignore the hours as I am currently single and don't mind working nights/weekend) as someone highlighted earlier gpland generally more acute cases and mc seekers, while ops is catered more to the complex chronics with multiple co-morbids.

Just thinking of my career scenarios post mmed in both directions (be it I pass/fail)

Noted recent threads.
Coming from a perspective of a junior FP (only cleared mmed last year). I think ops pts will get increasingly complex. After mmed, you tend to get arrowed to join various sag groups, where you work with specialist to design workflow/cpg etc.
In my opinion, with an aging population, there will be an increased demand in hospital services, and when hospitals cannot cope, they will try and decant their pts to us.

I forsee there will be more shared care pathways (e.g stable heart failure, COPD, ILD, wouldn't even surprise me if stable Ra pts may be decanted to us in the future), and more of the specialist drugs will be available in ops (e.g entresto, or certain dmards for RA, with specific workflow/cpg on how to manage these pts)
- they may also start decant pts earlier to us, e.g post pci for mi, cardio may just see once then decant to us, renal may only accept pts with ckd4 and above, meaning pts with ckd 3a/3b will be managed in ops. (I currently refer all ckd 3 and above to renal based on my institution cpg)

Gps are probably spared from this as they can always say I don't have these drugs, so I can't manage.

With the government grandplan for healthier sg, I forsee there will be increase demand in screening services which will likely be a huge source of income for gps.

Just my thoughts 😃