<TABLE id=msgUN border=0 cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD id=msgUNsubj vAlign=top>CHALLENGE TO THE FAMILEE DOGS - ARE U PREPARED TO BE TREATED BY THESE FTRASH DOCS WITH DUBIOUS QUALIFICATIONS YOURSELVES?
Coffeeshop Chit Chat - More FT doctors for you
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Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>teh_si <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>12:03 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 6) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>19202.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>The govt's rationale for capping the number of medical students was that supply would induce demand leading to higher healthcare expenditure.
But there is a real increase in healthcare demand driven by our ageing population and our aspiration to be a regional medical hub. Over-restricting supply in the face of independently-rising demand simply drove up healthcare costs.
yet another govt policy failure...
I have seen african doctors at our polyclinics and govt hospitals... though I don't know if they were trained in Africa... anyway I wonder how our dialect-speaking elderly is going to communicate with the doctor and his Filipino nurse..
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ST, 18 Aug 09
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Doctors from abroad form growing pool in Singapore
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Hospitals step up recruitment to meet health-care needs </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
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Dr Lekha, a senior consultant in India, is now a registrar in ophthalmology at Alexandra Hospital and Jurong Medical Centre. Hospitals are taking on foreign medical talent to meet growing health-care needs. -- ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MORE foreign-trained doctors are choosing to work in Singapore as hospitals step up recruitment to cope with the growing health-care demands of an ageing population.
In the past three years, more than half of new doctors here have come from overseas, including 1,000 foreign-trained doctors who have returned to Singapore after completing their studies.
Some hospitals are also recruiting overseas. KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), for example, has hired 15 doctors through six recruitment exercises in Britain, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines since 2007.
Alexandra Hospital does two overseas recruitments a year. Other hospitals too have been scouring the world to bring in good doctors, many of whom are specialists with years of practice in their field.
Foreign doctors are paid the same as Singapore doctors of similar level.
This drive has seen the number of doctors here grow by more than 450 a year for the past two years, more than double the 200-a-year figure over the five preceding years.
Singapore's need for doctors has been spurred by the growing population, the influx of foreign patients seeking treatment and the desire to provide even better service - a need that the current annual output of just over 200 medical graduates from the National University of Singapore is unable to meet.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong alluded to this in his National Day Rally on Sunday night when he spoke of how Singapore is gearing up for an ageing population.
The country is likely to need double the number of doctors it has now, with a further 1,500 hospital beds being added to the current 11,500 as four new hospitals open over the next five years.
To cope with the need for so many more doctors, the Ministry of Health has made several changes to make it easier for hospitals to recruit foreign medical talent.
Mrs Chua Pek Kim, head of human resources at KKH, said 17 of the 40 doctors it recruited last year, and 11 of the 18 this year, were foreigners or foreign-trained Singaporeans.
Such heavy recruitment is expected to continue for some time, as the Health Ministry wants Singapore to double the number of doctors in the country - from one doctor for every two hospital beds, to one doctor per bed.
Mrs Chua said KKH is still actively recruiting specialists, especially in the areas of emergency medicine, neonatology, paediatric surgery, cardiology and anaesthesia.
Of the 1,750 foreign doctors practising here, 70 per cent, or more than 1,200, are in the public sector. Only one in three are specialists, a Health Ministry spokesman told The Straits Times.
But many of the foreigners working here were practising as specialists, and hope to reach that same rank after the obligatory two years working under supervision.
One such is Dr Lekha Gopal, 39, who was a senior ophthalmologist at Chennai's Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital. When she joined Alexandra Hospital in December 2007, she did so as a registrar, or specialist trainee, although at a slightly higher salary than what she received in India.
The eye doctor, who got her first degree in Bangalore and her specialist degree from Scotland's University of Edinburgh, said that in spite of the lower rank, she decided to come for the many advantages here, such as the well-equipped hospitals and the opportunity to do research.
She will be applying for full registration when her two years are up in December. If granted, she will be able to work as a consultant.
She and her husband, a researcher at the Singapore National Eye Centre, who have a three-year-old daughter, are thinking of making Singapore their home.
'Life here is more comfortable and there are a lot more activities we can do over the weekends. We're both very happy,' she said.
According to the Singapore Medical Council, the number of specialists in the public sector has gone up by 73 per cent between 2000 and last year. The number will likely shoot up over the next few years as foreign specialists like Dr Lekha complete their two-year stints as registrars.
There are now 3,000 specialists practising here. The biggest increase was in emergency medicine, which more than tripled from 21 in 2000 to 68 last year. This year, another seven joined the ranks.
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But there is a real increase in healthcare demand driven by our ageing population and our aspiration to be a regional medical hub. Over-restricting supply in the face of independently-rising demand simply drove up healthcare costs.
yet another govt policy failure...
I have seen african doctors at our polyclinics and govt hospitals... though I don't know if they were trained in Africa... anyway I wonder how our dialect-speaking elderly is going to communicate with the doctor and his Filipino nurse..
==
ST, 18 Aug 09
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Doctors from abroad form growing pool in Singapore
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Hospitals step up recruitment to meet health-care needs </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Dr Lekha, a senior consultant in India, is now a registrar in ophthalmology at Alexandra Hospital and Jurong Medical Centre. Hospitals are taking on foreign medical talent to meet growing health-care needs. -- ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MORE foreign-trained doctors are choosing to work in Singapore as hospitals step up recruitment to cope with the growing health-care demands of an ageing population.
In the past three years, more than half of new doctors here have come from overseas, including 1,000 foreign-trained doctors who have returned to Singapore after completing their studies.
Some hospitals are also recruiting overseas. KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), for example, has hired 15 doctors through six recruitment exercises in Britain, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines since 2007.
Alexandra Hospital does two overseas recruitments a year. Other hospitals too have been scouring the world to bring in good doctors, many of whom are specialists with years of practice in their field.
Foreign doctors are paid the same as Singapore doctors of similar level.
This drive has seen the number of doctors here grow by more than 450 a year for the past two years, more than double the 200-a-year figure over the five preceding years.
Singapore's need for doctors has been spurred by the growing population, the influx of foreign patients seeking treatment and the desire to provide even better service - a need that the current annual output of just over 200 medical graduates from the National University of Singapore is unable to meet.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong alluded to this in his National Day Rally on Sunday night when he spoke of how Singapore is gearing up for an ageing population.
The country is likely to need double the number of doctors it has now, with a further 1,500 hospital beds being added to the current 11,500 as four new hospitals open over the next five years.
To cope with the need for so many more doctors, the Ministry of Health has made several changes to make it easier for hospitals to recruit foreign medical talent.
Mrs Chua Pek Kim, head of human resources at KKH, said 17 of the 40 doctors it recruited last year, and 11 of the 18 this year, were foreigners or foreign-trained Singaporeans.
Such heavy recruitment is expected to continue for some time, as the Health Ministry wants Singapore to double the number of doctors in the country - from one doctor for every two hospital beds, to one doctor per bed.
Mrs Chua said KKH is still actively recruiting specialists, especially in the areas of emergency medicine, neonatology, paediatric surgery, cardiology and anaesthesia.
Of the 1,750 foreign doctors practising here, 70 per cent, or more than 1,200, are in the public sector. Only one in three are specialists, a Health Ministry spokesman told The Straits Times.
But many of the foreigners working here were practising as specialists, and hope to reach that same rank after the obligatory two years working under supervision.
One such is Dr Lekha Gopal, 39, who was a senior ophthalmologist at Chennai's Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital. When she joined Alexandra Hospital in December 2007, she did so as a registrar, or specialist trainee, although at a slightly higher salary than what she received in India.
The eye doctor, who got her first degree in Bangalore and her specialist degree from Scotland's University of Edinburgh, said that in spite of the lower rank, she decided to come for the many advantages here, such as the well-equipped hospitals and the opportunity to do research.
She will be applying for full registration when her two years are up in December. If granted, she will be able to work as a consultant.
She and her husband, a researcher at the Singapore National Eye Centre, who have a three-year-old daughter, are thinking of making Singapore their home.
'Life here is more comfortable and there are a lot more activities we can do over the weekends. We're both very happy,' she said.
According to the Singapore Medical Council, the number of specialists in the public sector has gone up by 73 per cent between 2000 and last year. The number will likely shoot up over the next few years as foreign specialists like Dr Lekha complete their two-year stints as registrars.
There are now 3,000 specialists practising here. The biggest increase was in emergency medicine, which more than tripled from 21 in 2000 to 68 last year. This year, another seven joined the ranks.
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