Our doctors are just facing what the rest of the population has
been facing for a long time, namely, that anyone can come to
Singapore and work.
For donkey years, our male population has been moaning that
foreigners are treated similar to them, despite our own
Singaporeans having sacrificed the best two and a half years (or
two years) of their lives to the duty of training and defending the
country. This has led to the oft-heard comment that being a
Malaysian (or Chinese or Indian) in Singapore is better than being
a Singaporean!
There is another flip side to the coin to this, not just about it
being unfair to our own doctors, who paid throught their noses to
study in NUS Medicine, and got bonded in the bargain. These Indian
doctors are surely not be attending to our rich and affluent, but
rather to the poor and needy. So the waiting times may be reduced,
but they will be attended to by doctors who do not understand their
own languages. As all know, medicine is as much about healing as
about comforting. Deny it as one might, the difference in language
is surely a hindrance to it. Put it another way, would our rich and
powerful be willing to be doctored by one of these "bangla"
doctors? How many times have we heard our old complaing that these
Indian doctors in the polyclinics have no idea what concerns are
being voiced? How many of our parents, uncles or aunts would prefer
to be seen by them?
Surely the solution should be to increase the intake such that
there would be enough doctors to cater to our own needs in the long
term, rather than permanently using these Indian doctors to make up
the shortfall. Are they really cheaper? Can someone come up with
hard facts that they WILL be paid lower salaries ALWAYS, or rather,
only lower salaries in the first year or first two years. If they
are going to be paid a similar salary to our own doctors
eventually, why not just take in more Singaporean medical students?
Why are we paying the same salary to foreign doctors, when they are
not as desirable as compared to Singaporean doctors, and most would
eventually take the money back to India?
As to Mushroom's contention that most would still move to the
private sector even if we are to take in more medical students, I
don't think so. If we produce enough doctors, the private sector
would be so flooded with doctors that there would be enough ALSO
for the public sector.
As it is, many aspiring Singaporeans are forced to go overseas to
pursue their dreams of practising medicine, resulting in millions
of dollars going to foreign medical colleges. Singaporeans who
graduate overseas would also find it more easy to continue working
and finally settling down overseas, resulting in a double whammy of
losing both money (for their fees) and their talents (when they
migrate). As to overproducing doctors, that should not even be an
issue. Isn't the government pursuing the policy of promoting
bioscience? What better people to become researchers and clinical
scientists if not doctors? Armed with a medical degree (and the
knowledge), they can move on to become even more effective
administrators, scientists, researchers, lecturers etc. in the
bioscientific field.
Anyway, this move of bringing in Indian doctors smacks of the same
old knee-jerk, short-term reaction to a present problem, instead of
implementing a long-term course of action that may take more
effort. We can bring them in for the short-term, but there should
be plans to educate enought Singaporeans to man our hospitals in
the long run.
