Various factors looked at in overseas med school review

Joint SMC-MOH reply

We thank Dr Ong Siew Chey for his letter (What criteria led to removal of overseas medical schools?, April 22).

The Singapore Medical Council (SMC) reviews the list of overseas medical schools with registrable basic medical qualifications periodically to respond to changing local healthcare demands and workforce, and ensure continued high quality among overseas-trained doctors practising in Singapore.

With the addition of Duke-NUS Medical School in 2005 and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in 2013, the annual intake of medical students across the three medical schools in Singapore has risen from about 300 in 2010 to about 500 last year.

The impact of the increase will be fully realised from 2023, when the larger cohorts of students graduate.

As we now train more doctors in our medical schools, the number of overseas medical schools with registrable basic medical qualifications can be moderated down.

In reviewing the list, SMC took into account the international and national rankings of the overseas medical schools. It also considered various other factors, including the needs of our healthcare system and the performance of graduates from the medical schools, who have been registered to practise in Singapore.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has accepted SMC's recommendation.

MOH and SMC will continue to review the list regularly based on the evolving needs of Singapore's healthcare system while upholding high standards of medical practice.

Lim Siok Peng
Director, Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health

Frances Kong
Deputy Head, Corporate Communications
Singapore Medical Council

Forum Letter

The Straits Times, 22 April 2019

What criteria led to removal of overseas medical schools?

Recently, I read that the number of overseas medical schools recognised by Singapore was cut from 160 to 103 (Approved overseas medical schools list cut from 160 to 103, April 19).

The criteria adopted by the Singapore Medical Council were not clearly stated but a few factors, like local universities expanding places for medical students and maintaining the quality of doctors here, were mentioned.

International or national ranking of colleges and universities is heavily influenced by the postgraduate research of the institution and may not directly indicate the standard or quality of its undergraduates.

From my personal experience, interns or housemen from leading medical schools, such as Harvard, were not all manifestly better in their work than those from less well-known schools.

The ranking also depends considerably on the fame of the staff.

When I was a medical student in the United States, two professors in the teaching staff were Nobel Prize winners.

They were highly specialised and had practically no contact with undergraduates.

They each gave a lecture in the four years that did not benefit us very much except that we felt inspired.

In the US, state medical schools must also limit their intake to state residents.

For instance, the University of California Medical School in San Francisco used to take in 72 student per year, 70 of whom had to be state residents.

A foreign student would have had to compete for one of the two places with all out-of-state applicants.

I hope the Singapore Medical Council does not take the number of Singaporeans in a medical school as a criterion for recognition.

Ong Siew Chey (Dr)