This article has been migrated from an earlier version of the site and may display formatting inconsistencies.
12 May 2011, The Straits Times
Doctor shortage: Beef up the local intake
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan pointed to a shortage of doctors and nurses while dismissing the Singapore Democratic Party's proposal to operate mini polyclinics in void decks ('Opposition has strange ideas on health care: Khaw'; Wednesday).
To overcome the shortage, shouldn't Mr Khaw consider increasing the annual intake of medical students?
My son was among the first batch of International Baccalaureate (IB) graduates. He was rejected by the National University of Singapore's medical school but was accepted by Monash University, University of New South Wales and University of Tasmania.
As he did not benefit from any government subsidy for his medical studies, is there any genuine and concerted effort by the Health Ministry to convince people like him to return and serve the nation after they graduate?
Peter Yan
Reply From MOH
Mr Peter Yan asked for the annual intake of medical students to be increased ('Doctor shortage: Beef up the local intake'; last Friday).
We have done so and further expansions are in the pipeline. Today, we have two medical schools and a third is on track to start in 2013. At the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, we have progressively increased intake from 230 in 2005 to 280 today, and this will be further increased to 300 by next year.
The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, which started in 2007, now takes in 50 students. The third medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, will take in 50 students in 2013 and gradually increase to 150 students in the longer term. In the steady state, these three schools will train about 500 doctors annually. Besides expanding our local training pipeline, our public sector hospitals are also making concerted recruitment efforts to attract Singaporean students studying medicine overseas to return to Singapore. Last year, they launched the pre-employment grant for Singaporean medical students studying overseas. Those who take up the grant have their tuition fees partially covered and upon completion of their studies, they serve in the public health- care institutions for a certain period. A total of 63 Singaporean students from Britain and Australia have taken up the offer.
We recognise that training of doctors takes time. It is equally important to retain them in the public sector and our public hospitals have been actively enhancing working conditions of their medical staff to better retain them.
We will certainly do more to ensure that our health-care system is able to cope with increasing patient demand.
Karen Tan (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health