Senior doctors attrition

10 July 2012

Question No. 495

Name of person: Ms Tan Su Shan

To ask the Minister for Health (a) how have the upcoming new private hospitals affected the public hospitals' ability to retain senior doctors; (b) what is the percentage of senior doctors who have left for private practice recently; and (c) how does this affect the public sector's ability to train and mentor young doctors from medical schools.

Answer

1        At the national level, MOH plans healthcare infrastructural capacity and healthcare manpower staffing in tandem to ensure that there is sufficient manpower to meet service expansions.  Over the years, we have been growing the supply of doctors (both specialists and non-specialists) through increasing local medical undergraduate and postgraduate training pipelines.  The medical school intake had increased from 230 in 2005, to 336 in 2011, between NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.  With the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine opening in 2013, the three medical schools will train 500 doctors annually, in the steady state.  The specialist trainee intake had increased substantially from 176 in 2009 to 451 in 2011, with the roll-out of the Residency postgraduate training system in 2010.  We are also attracting overseas Singaporean doctors and foreign professionals to work in Singapore.  

2        We expect the two new upcoming private hospitals to draw some specialist manpower from the public hospitals as they are the largest employer of specialists.  In the first half of 2012, the attrition rate of public sector specialists who indicated ‘joining private sector’ or ‘personal reasons’ as their reasons for leaving the public healthcare clusters was 2.1%, which  was slightly higher than the 2.0% average attrition over the same period in the past five years

3        Our public hospitals have taken steps to minimise the impact of specialist attrition.  Firstly, they increased their specialist staffing by 34%, from 1,618 to 2,164, over the past five years.  Secondly, we have enhanced the pay of public sector doctors to be more competitive against the market.  Thirdly, the public hospitals also engage private sector specialists who as Visiting Consultants to teach and supervise trainee doctors, alongside public sector colleagues.

4        These efforts will help to ensure sufficient capacity and capability within the public sector to train and mentor the future generations of doctors and provide quality healthcare for Singaporeans.