A 33 year old medical officer from
Changi General Hospital Department of Urology, Thiyagarajan
Mathimaran has been charged with molesting a 42 year old woman in a
staff toilet on New Year’s day.
No plea was taken from Thiyagarajan
Mathimaran, 33, an Indian national. If convicted of molest, he
could be jailed up to two years, and fined or caned.
It was not revealed whether he is
currently on conditional or full registration with the Singapore
Medical Council. Urology is a popular subspecialty among Singapore
medical officers and is usually reserved for trainees undergoing
specialization in General Surgery or Urology.
Due to the shortage of Singapore
doctors as a result of the PAP regime’s ill-thought decision to
impose a quota on the number of places in NUS Medicine in the
1990s, Singapore has been recruiting doctors from overseas to make
up for the shortfall.
Many of them work in polyclinics or
hospital departments with an acute shortage of medical officers
such as General Medicine, Geriatrics and Cardiothoracic Surgery
which are generally shunned by local doctors bonded to the public
sector.
According to former Health Minister
Khaw Boon Wan, the Ministry of Health will be increasing the intake
of foreigners. As of now, about one in three doctors in Singapore
graduated overseas.
Latest data from the Singapore Medical
Council revealed that the number of newly registered foreign
doctors have exceeded that of locals in the last two years:
Indian nationals form the bulk of
foreign doctors in Singapore and by and large, most of them are
quite well-trained, dedicated and professional with some undergoing
further training to become registrars and consultants in our public
hospitals.
