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Singapore Medical License Exam

You’ve just graduated from your medical school, and you’re now ready to take the Singapore Medical License Exam. It’s a stressful time as you compete with (and against) many doctors who are also striving to pass. The exams are known to be very challenging. You’ve taken your pre-requisite courses, completed clinical work, and have dedicated most of your life to preparing for this test.

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The actual truth is, an American physician wanting to work in Singapore will need a job offer in hand to apply for an Employment Pass, a work permit for foreign professionals. Physicians need to earn at least $4500/month to be eligible. Your employer will apply for .the Employment Pass on your behalf.

Are you one of those that have been going through the internet for information on singapore medical license exam? Do you often get confused by the conflicting information you see on it online? You need not search further as you will find the answer to this question in the article below.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) requirement for doctors is that they must hold a valid medical license from any country recognised by MOM and have at least 5 years of post-qualification experience with 2 years spent in general practice prior to applying for an Employment Pass (EP). This means that if you are applying for an EP as an emergency medicine doctor or cardiologist, then your experience within these fields must be at least 5 years long before you can apply. If you are applying as a general practitioner then your experience must be at least 2 years long before applying.

Read on to get the latest information on how to become a doctor in singapore, singapore medical council approved universities, mbbs exam singapore, singapore medical council temporary registration, doctors in singapore salary, singapore medical association, how to become a specialist doctor in singapore & singapore medical council members. You will find more up to date information on singapore medical license exam in related articles on Collegelearners.

Singapore Medical License Exam

About Singapore Medical Council Temporary Registration

MEDICAL SCHOOLS RECOGNISED BY THE SINGAPORE MEDICAL COUNCIL – SMC

If you have a medical degree and wish to practise in Singapore, you need to check with the Singapore Medical Council to see if you qualify for a full or conditional registration. If you did not graduate from any of these medical schools, but have obtained a post graduate medical qualification listed here, you may also apply for registration.

Conditional Registration

Allows an international medical graduate (IMG) to work only in an SMC-approved healthcare institution, under the supervision of a fully registered medical practitioner.

Eligibility requirements:

holds a basic* medical degree from a university / medical school listed in the Second Schedule of the Medical Registration Act; or
has a postgraduate or exit specialist qualification recognised by the Specialists Accreditation Board; and
has been selected for employment in a Singapore hospital / institution / medical practice in an SMC-approved healthcare institution; and
holds a certificate of experience as proof of satisfactory completion of housemanship; and
is currently in active clinical practice**; and
has passed such national licensing examination as required in the country where the basic medical degree was conferred (where applicable); and
has been certified to be in good standing by the overseas regulatory body or medical council equivalent; and
fulfills English Language requirements of SMC if the medium of instruction for the basic medical qualification is not in the English Language

  • Medical degree obtained via a ‘twinning programme’ would be considered only if the clinical training years and final examinations are completed in the country where the Scheduled medical school or university is sited.

**The doctor should be in active clinical practice for the 3 years preceding the application for medical registration (i.e. 168 hours during 3 years prior to the application).

International Medical Graduate

The Singapore Medical Council (SMC) would like to highlight that International Medical Graduates who do not hold qualifications which are recognised by the SMC, will not be eligible to apply for medical registration to practise in Singapore. This applies to all applicants.

International Medical Graduates (IMGs) refer to doctors trained overseas. IMGs holding a degree from a university specified in the Second Schedule of the MRA or a registrable postgraduate medical qualification recognised by SMC or exit specialist qualification recognised for specialist accreditation by the Specialists Accreditation Board (SAB), Singapore, may apply for conditional registration.

SMC strongly advise all interested applicants to ensure that they fulfil all necessary criteria, including but not limited to, holding a qualification which is listed on the Second Schedule of the MRA or a registrable postgraduate medical qualification recognised by the SMC.

About MBBS Exam Singapore

To meet the changing healthcare needs of Singaporeans, and to ensure that the quality of overseas-trained doctors practising in Singapore remains high, the list of registrable basic medical qualifications under the Medical Registration Act is reviewed from time to time. The Singapore Medical Council (SMC) has reviewed the list, and proposed that the number of overseas medical schools with registrable basic medical qualifications be reduced from 160 to 103, effective on 1 January 2020. The Ministry of Health (MOH) has accepted SMC’s recommendation.

This means that 172 overseas medical schools will no longer have their basic medical qualifications listed as registrable by MOH. However, students who have graduated from these schools will not be affected by this change. They will still be allowed to take the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) examination and apply for registration after passing it.

The reduction in number of overseas medical schools with registrable basic medical qualifications is part of efforts to improve quality assurance in postgraduate education and training programmes for international medical graduates in Singapore.

  1. The revised list of overseas medical schools with registrable basic medical qualifications can be found in the Annex. Please refer to SMC’s website at www.smc.gov.sg for the revised List of Registrable Basic Medical Qualifications from these overseas medical schools.
  2. Singapore Citizen and Singapore Permanent Resident students who have already secured a place as a candidate in a medical programme from a school that is no longer on the list, or who are studying in the affected schools before 1 January 2020, will not be affected by the change. They will be considered for medical registration with SMC if they fulfil the prevailing requirements, subject to an offer of employment with an SMC-approved healthcare institution upon their graduation.
  3. In line with MOH’s Healthcare Manpower Plan to provide quality healthcare services for Singaporeans, we have been growing our local healthcare training pipelines and building a strong local core to meet the healthcare needs of our ageing population. Total annual intakes into our local medical schools have risen from about 300 in 2010 to about 500 in 2018 from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at the Nanyang Technological University.1 The impact of the increase in local medical school intake will be fully realised from 2023, when these students graduate. As such, we expect our need to recruit overseas-trained doctors to moderate and stabilise in the coming years.
  4. The review of the list of registrable basic medical qualifications also took into consideration various factors including international and national rankings of these universities, as well as performance of conditionally registered doctors from these universities, to ensure that the quality of overseas-trained doctors practising in Singapore locally remains high.
  5. SMC will continue to review the list regularly based on the evolving needs of Singapore’s healthcare system while upholding high standards of medical practice.

About Singapore Medical Council Temporary Registration

Practising as a Doctor or Specialist in Singapore
Starting your medical practice in Singapore.

Secure a job with one of the many healthcare institutions in Singapore;
Register with Singapore Medical Council (SMC); and
You must get Accredited by the Specialists Accreditation Board (SAB) before registration if you are practising as a specialist.

Sub-Sections
Medical Registration
Specialist Accreditation
Flowchart of Registration / Accreditation Process

Medical Registration
There are 4 types of medical registration for doctors who wish to practise in Singapore:

Provisional Registration
Allows a local/overseas-trained fresh medical graduate to be employed as a house officer in approved hospitals.
Conditional Registration
Allows an overseas-trained doctor (who has completed housemanship) to work in a healthcare establishment, under the supervision by a fully registered doctor.
Temporary Registration
Allows an overseas-trained doctor to have short attachments at public hospitals for teaching, research or postgraduate study; conduct lectures etc as a visiting expert.
Full Registration
Allows a local/overseas-trained doctor (who has completed his housemanship) to practise on his own. (*SMC requires an overseas-trained doctor to complete a specified period of conditional registration before he can be fully registered.)
Details on the registration processes and requirements can be found on SMC’s website.

Specialist Accreditation
If you are a Specialist willing to practise your specialty in Singapore, please visit the Specialists Accreditation Board website for more information on Specialist Accreditation Application and Registration.

Flowchart of Registration/Accreditation Process
Refer to the flowcharts below depicting the Registration and Accreditation processes:

Fresh Medical Graduates

Non-practising Specialities

Practising Specialties

About Doctors in Singapore Salary

Kiasu parents all over Singapore put their kids through years of private tuition sessions and enrichment classes in hopes that they will grow up to become a superstar heart surgeon or high court judge.

Despite the fact that the job industry is now much more varied than before, the professions (loosely defined as jobs that require a specific qualification rather than a general degree) are still highly sought after, whether by aspiring JC or poly grads or their kiasu parents.

The usual suspects like doctor and lawyer appear on this list due to their above-average salaries, together with other popular occupations like teacher and pilot.

But how much do these people really earn? MOM actually has a salary benchmarking tool which lets you search for the media salary for different jobs. Here’s what it has to say about some of Singapore’s most sought-after jobs.

7 Popular jobs in Singapore and their salaries
Popular job in Singapore Median salary
Doctor (Generation Practitioner / Physician) $12,052
Pilot (Commercial) $9,000*
Lawyer $8,300
Teacher (Secondary) $5,000*
Architect $4,500
Dentist $4,495
Nurse $3,890

  • Approximate figures taken from payscale.com

Doctor salary in Singapore
Median salary: $12,052

Doctors have the potential to earn top dollar in Singapore. That being said, becoming a doctor is a hard slog and takes many years of surviving a hyper competitive educational pathway as well as working long hours for years.

After medical school, graduates train for a year at a local hospital with a salary of about $3,600, after which they will start earning about $4,500 to $6,000+ depending on their shifts. Shifts can last more than 24 hours and medical officers must often remain on call on weekends and at night.

It’s only after these first few years that they can start to enjoy better work-life balance and command a higher salary. At this point, many seek further training or even complete a post-graduate degree. Doctors must be prepared to specialise in one area or set up their own clinics to really improve their earnings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZnheak-UT0

About Singapore Medical Association

Singapore Medical Association
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
Singapore Medical Association
Abbreviation SMA
Motto “Jasa Utama” (“Service before Self”)[1]
Predecessor Malaya Branch of the British Medical Association
Formation September 15, 1959; 61 years ago
Type Professional association
Purpose Research, advocacy
Headquarters Singapore
Fields Medicine
Membership (2020) 8,200
President Tan Yia Swam[2]
Website www.sma.org.sg
The Singapore Medical Association (abbreviated SMA) is a professional association representing the interests of medical professionals in Singapore. It was established on September 15, 1959, replacing the Malaya Branch of the British Medical Association.[3] As of 2020, it had over 8,200 members.[4] It publishes the monthly peer-reviewed Singapore Medical Journal.[5]

Controversies
On 3 November 2020, in response to complaints that online platform DoctorxDentist was listing doctors’ details without consent, SMA disseminated an email to its members saying that doctors had the right to be removed from doctor directories. It also offered to assist association members who wished to disassociate from DoctorxDentist for free.

how to become a doctor in singapore

Starting your medical practice in Singapore.

Secure a job with one of the many healthcare institutions in Singapore;
Register with Singapore Medical Council (SMC); and
You must get Accredited by the Specialists Accreditation Board (SAB) before registration if you are practising as a specialist.

Medical Registration

There are 4 types of medical registration for doctors who wish to practise in Singapore:

  1. Provisional Registration
    Allows a local/overseas-trained fresh medical graduate to be employed as a house officer in approved hospitals.
  2. Conditional Registration
    Allows an overseas-trained doctor (who has completed housemanship) to work in a healthcare establishment, under the supervision by a fully registered doctor.
  3. Temporary Registration
    Allows an overseas-trained doctor to have short attachments at public hospitals for teaching, research or postgraduate study; conduct lectures etc as a visiting expert.
  4. Full Registration
    Allows a local/overseas-trained doctor (who has completed his housemanship) to practise on his own. (*SMC requires an overseas-trained doctor to complete a specified period of conditional registration before he can be fully registered.)

Details on the registration processes and requirements can be found on SMC’s website.
 

Specialist Accreditation

If you are a Specialist willing to practise your specialty in Singapore, please visit the Specialists Accreditation Board website for more information on Specialist Accreditation Application and Registration.

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