Recent Letters On The Need For More Doctors In Singapore

11 Apr 2009, The Straits Times

Question

MOH scores some successes in meeting medical manpower needs

Recent Letters in ST Forum had commented on the need for more doctors in Singapore, MOH gave a consolidated reply.

Reply

Reply from MOH 

We refer to recent letters to ST Forum on the need for more doctors in Singapore.  We agree with the writers that we must increase our supply to prepare for the ageing of our population.  We have been doing so, with some success.

First, we have raised the intake of medical students to NUS, from 230 in 2006 to 260 in 2008. This will be raised further to 300 by 2011. In addition, the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School has doubled its intake to 50 students per year

Second, we have been aggressively recruiting doctors from top medical schools overseas.  Over the past 3 years, we recruited over 1,000 foreign-trained doctors. 

Third, public hospitals have been actively enhancing the working conditions of their medical staff to better retain them.

As a result of these efforts, the attrition rate for doctors has declined from 8.7% in 2004 to 6.5% currently.  The number of doctors in the public sector has increased steadily from 3,300 in 2005, to 3,500 in 2006, 3900 in 2007 and 4,300 currently.  This is a very significant increase of 30% over 3 years.

Still, there is scope for further improvement and we will not relent on this effort to recruit and retain good doctors in the public sector and to make their working life more meaningful.  In the longer term, we will also have to consider further expansion of local training in order to support a larger population.  The need for a third medical school is currently being studied.