30 Sep 2011
By: MELISSA PANG & POON CHIAN HUI
FOUR months into his job as a medical officer at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), Beijing native Feng Juefei attended to a patient who had to undergo a surgical procedure for a liver problem.
She bombarded Dr Feng, 29, with questions like “Is it confirmed that I have to do this?” and “Why do I need to do this?”
Thinking she wanted more information about the procedure, he explained it at length. What she really wanted was to see a senior doctor, he later found out.
“In China, the patient would probably have just shouted at me, saying, ‘I want to see the senior doctor!’” said Dr Feng in fluent English.
He noted that Singaporeans are less direct than Chinese nationals in saying what is on their minds, and it is cultural differences like this that he has had to cope with in dealing with patients.
The medical graduate is among the first batch of 23 doctors from China recruited by the Ministry of Health (MOH) last year.
As of the end of last year, 3,121 foreign-trained doctors were registered with the Singapore Medical Council (SMC). They include Singaporeans and those from countries such as Britain, Australia, Myanmar and India.
Foreign doctors, who would have received basic medical training, sign a three-year contract.
The total number of doctors registered with the SMC during the same period was 9,030. An MOH spokesman said its first priority in increasing manpower supply is to attract back qualified overseas- trained Singaporeans.
Eight of the doctors from China started work in March this year and the remainder will arrive next month. Four are at TTSH, one at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and three at the National University Hospital (NUH).
They are graduates from Peking Union Medical College, Zhejiang University and Peking University Health Science Centre.
All foreign doctors are interviewed in English by a panel to assess their clinical competency. Additional criteria apply to doctors from China, including passing two English tests.
One is a clinical test and the other gauges language proficiency.
TTSH’s assistant chairman of the medical board for education, Associate Professor Tham Kum Ying, said of the Chinese medical officers: “Their training is very rigorous – I don’t doubt their ability.”
Dr Feng, for example, has a medical degree in Western medicine from China’s Peking Union Medical College. It is an eight-year course.
Added Prof Tham: “They just need to adapt to the culture here, and to our systems.”
Associate Professor Chow Wan Cheng, head and senior consultant at SGH’s Department of Internal Medicine, agreed that the doctors do not lack medical knowledge.
“But the prevalence of diseases differs from country to country. There are also differences in how and what sort of specialist treats a certain condition,” she noted.
For example, the skin infection, cellulitis, is treated by surgeons in China. Here, physicians attend to the ailment, said SGH’s Dr Li Wei Shan, who is from Beijing.
“I also saw patients with dengue fever for the first time here,” said the 30-year-old, who was from Peking University First Hospital. “I bought textbooks to find out more about local diseases and spend time reading up every day.”
To help doctors from non-English-speaking countries adapt to the local system, hospitals such as TTSH have lined up month-long orientation programmes.
Orientation involves interactive workshops by health-care professionals. Doctors get to role-play with actors so they get a sense of how to communicate with patients.
The doctors also have to work in a team for a year.
Email: melpang@sph.com.sg / chpoon@sph.com.sg
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