More top foreign medical schools to be recognised

26 Mar 2006

JOINT PRESS STATEMENT BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND SINGAPORE MEDICAL COUNCIL

More top foreign medical schools to be recognised

      The Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the Singapore Medical Council (SMC), will be recognising more top foreign medical schools to attract a larger number of good foreign doctors to work in Singapore. The number of recognised foreign medical schools in the Schedule of the Medical Registration Act will be increased from 71 to 100 from 1 April 2006.

      The continuing advances in medicine coupled with the ageing of our population will necessitate a regular increase in the number of doctors to cater to our population's healthcare needs. Matching supply with demand is an important strategy in the control of medical cost. Failure to do so will lead to rising healthcare cost, besides putting undue pressure on public hospitals.

      Moreover, as Singapore promotes itself as a regional medical hub and a hub for world-class biomedical research, we will need many more doctors and clinician-scientists. Already, foreign patients coming here for treatment have been growing at an average of 20% per year for the last three years. We expect this trend to continue and hope to serve 1 million foreign patients by 2012.

      Presently there are less than 30 clinician-scientists involved in translational and clinical research in our healthcare institutions. We need to ramp up the number in order to support the expansion of such research activities in Biopolis, our hospitals and elsewhere. 

      Besides increasing local training of doctors, we should leverage on foreign doctors from reputable medical schools. As a policy, the top medical schools of the world ought to be on our schedule of recognised medical degrees. 

      Currently, there are 71 foreign medical schools in the Schedule. We will progressively expand the Schedule to recognise more top medical schools. 

      From 1 Apr, another 29 top medical schools from Japan, Europe and US will be added to the schedule (Annex). To safeguard medical standards, SMC will continue to assess foreign medical doctors in their initial years through a supervisory framework to ensure high standards of professional and ethical practice.

Ministry of Health

24 March 2006

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ANNEX

List of additional 29 foreign medical schools to be recognised

Austria

Medizinische Universitat Wien, Vienna

Medizinische Universitat Innsbruck

Belgium

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Denmark

Aarhus University

Finland

Helsinki University

France

Universite de Louis Pasteur Strasbourg I

Univ Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI)

Germany

Ruprecht-Karls Universitaet Heidelberg

Ludwig-Maximilians Universitaet Munchen

Humboldt Universitaet Zu Berlin (Charite Medical School)

Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universitaet Frankfurt

Italy

Universita di Roma La Sapienza (Facolta I and II)

Universita di Firenze

Japan

University of Tokyo

Kyoto University

Netherlands

Erasmus Universiteit

Universiteit  Utrecht

Universiteit Van Amsterdam

Norway

Universitetet I Oslo

Sweden

Karolinska Institutet

Uppsala Universitet

Universitetet I Lund

Switzerland

Universitat Zurich

Universite de Geneva

Universitat Basel

Universitat Bern

USA

Case Western Reserve University

University of Wisconsin-Madison

University of Iowa