http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,99605,00.html?
I read with amazing revelation on the ST Web edition that
healthcare in Singapore has finally come to it senses and taking a
re-think in the current cap on the quota of the number of doctors
in the republic.
Obviously some proverbial scholarly individual got his or her sums
wrong and thought that applying this cap on the number of returning
foreign trained doctors would consummate in the realization of a
perfect doctor to population ratio today. (Whooops Einstien!)
Since 1993, MOH drew up and enforced a list of about 20 overseas
medical schools that were formally recognized. Coming from this
list enabled the relevant doctor to register with the Singapore
Medical Council (SMC) and practice medicine in Singapore. Anything
outside this list was short-sightedly deemed too ill fated and no
practice license would be granted.
At this point, Id like to bring to the attention of the astute
reader a small but significant discrepancy in the current light of
this situation.
Say hypothetically I am a graduate from a university that is
renowned for its medicine but not on that list of the 20
recognized schools. Bearing in mind that a long time ago that I did
apply to NUS with my bunch of As, but was brushed off as being
still not good enough for the superbly world class institution that
sits grandly atop of Kent Ridge. Being ghastly saddened by the
prospect that I would be churned through the heartland building
machinery of the great powers and saddled with the prospect of
entering another profession that I had absolutely no interest in, I
fought a long 3 year battle and finally proceeded into a reputable
medical school that unfortunately was not on the esteemed MOH
list.
Now please would some cerebrally enhanced policy making individual
from MOH (who on the off chance might be reading this bulletin
board list during official office hours) explain to me why your
recruitment drives conducted overseas seem to be more friendly to
graduates who are actually not on your list of 20 recognized
universities. There have been recent cases where doctors have come
from schools outside this list that are still given full SMC
registration and working in the modern hospitals of our island
paradise in order to address the current pressing need for more
doctors.
Why the sudden change in tact and approach when exiles like us were
written off not only by NUS but also to be shut out of the entire
system by a simple list that was drawn up year ago in what proved
to be a highly myopic white paper?
What most people would find even more disheartening is the fact
that policy makers have decided not to come clean and say that they
have made a mistake and come clean in the open with the situation
on the table. Instead a so-called back door recruitment policy
has unobtrusively developed out of the public eye and order to
address the shortage of medical professionals. Well perhaps this
writer is asking for something impossible as revered policy makers
are sure incapable of making mistakes in Singapore huh?
I can foresee that the immediate rebuke to not opening up the
limited list of 20 schools is to prevent the floodgates from
opening by having every parent send his or her child to any Tom,
Dick or Harry university to return as a doctor. Well, for starters
you could have a larger list of perhaps 40 schools and exclude the
ones that are not too academically inclined in quality teaching.
Furthermore, it takes 5-7 years to clone a doctor so youre not
going to see overnight results anyway. Not all of us come back
anyway....And by then, you'll need some research clnicians in your
biotech laborotories et cetera...(u get da' picture)
Oh well, I have just about run out of the highest form of wit (i.e
sarcasm) and will cease here before causing any more embarrassment
for which a subpoena may be served on me unwittingly.
I do invite you to have a constructive discussion with regards to
the points that I have raised here. I bid thee farewell and my best
wishes in your strive to be a biotech hub.
Who knows? One day you may be able to clone doctors on demand and
not have to wait years for one to be educated to serve within your
whimsical rants and raves :-)