Singapore has worst patient-doctor ratio: AFP

Singapore has worst patient-doctor ratio: AFP

21 Feb 07

Singapore has the worst patient-to-doctor ratio among developed countries and has embarked on a global effort to entice doctors, a report said Wednesday.
Top health ministry officials went to Australia and London last year to convince Singaporean doctors studying or working there to return, and to encourage top foreign doctors to practise in Singapore, the Straits Times said.It quoted the health ministry's permanent secretary Yong Ying I, who was dispatched to London last year, as saying Singapore has the worst patient-to-doctor ratio among developed countries."We have very efficient doctors and they work very hard. But somewhere along the way we also don't have enough," the newspaper quoted Yong as saying."If you want to bring down waiting times, we need to recruit more doctors, much more than a few percent."The city-state is faced with an ageing population but is also seeking to bolster its role as a top provider of quality healthcare services for patients from abroad.Singapore, Southeast Asia's most advanced economy, had a population of about 4.4 million with 6,748 doctors registered in 2005, according to official statistics.The goal is to have one doctor per patient in public hospitals, up from a ratio of one per every two, the report said.The country needs to produce 400-600 locally trained doctors annually, up from the current level of more than 200, the paper quoted Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan as saying.
Khaw cautioned that "much as we will try to recruit as many as we can, we will be lucky to half-succeed," which was why he sent his top two ministry officials to scout for doctors abroad, the report said.

www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlesghealthcare.html