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Source:
www.moh.gov.sg |
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MOH and SMC Joint Press
Statement on Phasing Out of Temporary Registered Doctors for
Service Provision |
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In response to media queries about ˇ°stopping temporary registrationˇ±,
the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC)
would like to clarify that temporary registration for training and
research will continue to be granted as institutional interaction and
training of doctors from different countries are encouraged. |
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Only temporary medical registration for service provision is being
phased out by 31 Dec 2007. |
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Existing temporary registered doctors brought in as service providers
before 1 Jan 2008 can still continue to work here until they either
become conditionally registered (acquired recognized postgraduate
qualifications) or they have completed their 4-6 years of service in
Singapore. |
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Since year 2000, SMC has allowed temporary registered doctors from
medical schools not listed in the Schedule for providing service but
only for a limited period to alleviate the shortage of doctors in the
public sector hospitals and healthcare institutions. |
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It was recognized then that the longer term solution is to increase the
number of doctors from our local medical schools and to expand the
number of medical schools in the Schedule. This number was expanded to
71, then 100, then to 120 schools in year 2006, and recently to 140
foreign medical schools in April 2007. |
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From January this year, MOH and the healthcare clusters as well as the
regulatory bodies worked together on a coordinated overseas recruitment
effort to recruit international medical graduates from the medical
schools in the schedule. |
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With the implementation of this better coordinated and intensive
recruitment effort, the number of doctors recruited from schools in the
Schedule is expected to increase. This will enable the transitional
reliance in part, of doctors for service from medical schools which are
not on the Schedule to be phased out smoothly. |
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To date, there are 399 foreign trained doctors on conditional
registration with basic qualifications from Scheduled universities and
this does not include the past many who have converted to full
registration after their period of supervision. |
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Feedback from our hospitals also indicated that a practical timeframe to
phase out temporary registration for service was December 2007. |
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The number of new temporary registered doctors for short term
employment have decreased for the past 5 years to around half of
the number in 2006 (89 doctors) compared to the number recruited
in 2002 (161 doctors) as shown in table below. The numbers of new
conditionally and provisionally registered doctors have
correspondingly also increased. |
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Year |
New Temporary registered
doctors on Short Term Employment |
Total new foreign doctors
employed annually |
% of new temp registered
doctors on short term employment |
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2002 |
161 |
256 |
63% |
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2003 |
108 |
208 |
52% |
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2004 |
115 |
220 |
52% |
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2005 |
95 |
216 |
44% |
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2006 |
89 |
246 |
36% |
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Background |
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In Singapore, doctors can be
provisionally registered (house officers), temporary registered
for teaching (eg visiting experts), research or training (eg for
research or training fellows), conditionally registered (for
graduates from the 140 medical schools in the Schedule of the
Medical Registration Act (MRA) or those whose postgraduate
qualifications are recognized) or fully registered for doctors who
graduated from NUS and have completed their housemanship training
successfully. |
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Doctors who are conditionally
registered become fully registered after completion of the period
of supervision. |
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Conditional Registration is applied to
graduates of medical schools in the Schedule of the MRA or whose
postgraduate qualifications are recognised by SMC. Doctors who are
conditionally registered progress to full registration if their
supervision reports indicate that they are safe and competent
doctors. |
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Source:
www.moh.gov.sg Media Release
15 Jun 2007 |
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Notice |
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FrontPage Edition: Sat 16 June 2007
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