The Ministry of Health and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) will be including an additional 19 leading international medical schools to the Schedule of the Medical Registration Act with effect from 1st October 2007. This will bring the total number of foreign medical schools on our Schedule to 159 Top medical schools from Asia are the focus of this round of additions. Included are 6 medical schools from China, 4 from India, 4 from Japan, 2 from Taiwan and 1 from South Korea. 2 more medical schools from Europe have also been added.

As Singapore's population ages, there will be increasing demand on healthcare services.  This expansion of the Schedule will facilitate our healthcare institutions in sourcing from top Asian medical schools to meet the demand for more doctors.  Singaporeans graduating from any of the 159 international medical schools can also come back to Singapore, to supplement the number graduating from our own medical schools. The table below shows the increasing number of foreign doctors and Singaporeans from these top medical schools registering to practice in Singapore since we began the expansion of the Schedule.

Table: Number of new doctors registered from all medical schools on the Schedule from 2004-2007(Up to 14 September 2007)

ANNEX

 List of the additional 19 foreign medical schools to be recognised