Asia Update

Singapore: Renew or be removed

Medical practitioners have been warned that they risk the removal of their names from the Register of Medical Practitioners, should they fail to renew their practising certificates (PCs) for a continuous period of five years.

Under section 31(f) of the Medical Registration Act (Cap 174), practitioners must also be contactable via their details in the SMC’s Register.

Every year, in October, the SMC will publish a list of doctors who have not renewed their PCs for a continuous period of five years and who could not be contacted at their last known places of practice and residential addresses. Doctors whose names are listed must contact the SMC secretariat within two weeks of publication of the notice.

 

Singapore: Medifund for HIV patients

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has injected $8.5 million of Medifund assistance into hospitals, in order to extend assistance to Singaporeans who require HIV treatment, including providing medication.

The assistance, which will be subject to means-testing and proven financial needs, comes after feedback from doctors indicating some patients’ needs for additional financial assistance to cover treatment.

 

Singapore: Call to monitor foreign doctors

With two out of three newly-registered doctors in Singapore classed as “foreign-trained”, the Health Minister has called for greater performance-monitoring.

Khaw Boon Wan spoke to Parliament on the issue, which the Ministry of Health (MOH) has put down to a shortage of doctors in Singapore. In early 2009, the MOH said that it was recruiting 1,000 foreign-trained doctors into the public healthcare sector. With communication issues arising as a consequence – Indian and Filipino doctors have needed translators when treating local patients, for example – Mr Khaw said: “With more and more foreign-trained doctors working in Singapore, there is a need to monitor their performance and ensure they are up to Singapore’s standards and are adapting well locally.”

 

Singapore: GP aesthetic complaints go up

There has been an increase in the number of GPs referred to the SMC over complaints regarding aesthetic treatment. The SMC received 12 complaints last year, compared to six in 2007. This increase is despite stricter guidelines coming into force in November 2008, restricting the type of aesthetic treatments that GPs can perform.

 

Hong Kong: Work reform goes ahead

The Doctor Work Reform, which aims to reduce public doctors’ average weekly working hours while safeguarding patient care, has been endorsed by the Hospital Authority (HA) board.

Submitting the final report to the board, committee chairman Dr Leong Chehung said: “Doctor Work Reform is not meant as a numbers game, nor to nourish a clock-watching culture among health carers. Rather, the reform is about better teamwork and explicit sharing of responsibilities to provide better and more efficient patient care.”

Shane Solomon, HA Chief Executive, paid tribute to the work of the pilot reforms, in place since the end of 2007. These include the deployment of doctors to pressurised areas; re-engineering of emergency operating theatre services; establishment of emergency medicine wards; and introduction of care technician services.

“There are other supplementary programmes implemented to support the work reform, including the enhancement of senior nurse coverage; introduction of a common ward language to all hospital clusters; strengthening the core competency of health carers; and piloting an electronic handover system,” said Mr Solomon.

Mr Solomon also drew attention to the improvements in reducing continuous work hours. “The number of doctors undertaking on-site on-call duties for more than 24 hours at one go has dropped from 340 in 2006 to 221 on the snapshot weekday in 2009,” he said.

 

Malaysia: Invitation to private doctors

The Health Ministry has invited applications from private doctors to serve across Malaysia’s 162 government health clinics.

Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican, the director-general of health, has said the doctors, who must be registered with the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), could work at the clinics on a sessional or locum basis. Dr David Quek Kwang Leng, the MMA president, welcomed the invitation but called on the government to adequately compensate the doctors for their service.