SINGAPORE: Starting 2020, the list of overseas medical schools whose graduates can practise in Singapore will shrink from 160 to 103.

This comes after the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) reviewed the overseas medical schools with registrable basic medical qualifications, it said in a joint press release with the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (Apr 18).



The changes come as the need to recruit overseas-trained doctors abates, with total annual intakes from local medical schools rising from 300 in 2010 to about 500 in 2018.

"The impact of the increase in local medical school intake will be fully realised from 2023, when these students graduate," said MOH and SMC.

Responding to CNA's queries, MOH and SMC said that in recent years, it registered about 120 doctors annually who had trained at the affected medical schools. Of those, about 30 were Singaporean or Permanent Residents.

Comparatively, the local medical school intake rose by about 200 students over the same period.



"As we now train more doctors locally, the number of overseas medical schools with registrable basic medical qualifications can thus be moderated down," they said.

UNIVERSITIES TO BE EXCLUDED ARE FROM 20 COUNTRIES

Factors such as the international and national rankings of overseas universities and performance of conditionally registered doctors from these universities were taken into consideration during the review.

Universities that will be excluded come from 20 countries, including Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, China and India.

Some of the schools that have been cut include The Flinders University of South Australia's School of Medicine, the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Medicine.

Singaporean and permanent resident students who have secured places in medical programmes from schools that are no longer on the list or who are studying in the dropped schools before Jan 1, 2020 will not be affected by the change.

They will still be considered for medical registration with the SMC, provided they fulfil the prevailing requirements, which are subject to an offer of employment with a healthcare institution approved by the council upon graduation.

The council said that the list will continue to be reviewed regularly, to meet the evolving needs of Singapore's healthcare system and ensure the quality of overseas-trained doctors in Singapore.

There have been six rounds of reviews since 2003, with the most recent amendment to the list made in 2009.

Here are the 57 overseas medical schools that will be excluded from Jan 1, 2020:

AUSTRALIA

School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, The Flinders University of South Australia

School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle

Faculty of Health Science, University of Tasmania

AUSTRIA

University of Innsbruck

CANADA

Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa

Faculty of Medicine, Queen’s University

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario

College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan

Faculté de Médecine, Université Laval

Faculté de Médecine, Université de Sherbrooke

Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University

FRANCE

Faculté de Médecine, Université Louis Pasteur (ULP) Strasbourg

GERMANY

Fachbereich Medizin, Johann Wolfgang Goethe‑Universität Frankfurt am Main

INDIA

Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune

Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry

Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi

Grant Medical College, Mumbai

St John’s Medical College, Bangalore

Madras Medical College, Chennai

IRELAND

Faculty of Medicine, National University of Ireland, University College Cork

Faculty of Medicine, National University of Ireland, University College Dublin

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway

School of Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (National University of Ireland)

ISRAEL

Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University

ITALY

Prima e Seconda Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Sapienza Università di Roma

Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Firenze

JAPAN

School of Medicine, Hokkaido University

School of Medicine (Tokyo), Keio University

Faculty of Medicine, Nagoya University

Faculty of Medicine (Fukuoka), Kyushu University

Tokyo Women’s Medical University

NORWAY

Det Medisinske Fakultet, Universitetet I Oslo

PAKISTAN

The Aga Khan University Medical College

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Sun Yat-Sen College of Medical Science (Guangdong), Sun Yat-Sen University

Zhejiang University School of Medicine

School of Medicine, Wuhan University

The West China College of Medicine, Sichuan University

SOUTH KOREA

College of Medicine (Seoul), Korea University

SPAIN

Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

SRI LANKA

Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo

SWITZERLAND

Faculté de Médecine, Université de Lausanne (UNIL)

TAIWAN

College of Medicine (Taoyuan), Chang Gung University

UNITED KINGDOM

Faculty of Medicine and Medical Science, University of Aberdeen

College of Medicine and Health Sciences, The Queens University of Belfast

School of Medicine, University of Leeds

Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Medical School, University of St Andrews

College of Medicine, University of Wales (merged with Cardiff University)

USA

University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Roy J & Lucille A Carver College of Medicine at University of Iowa

School of Medicine, University of Alabama

School of Medicine, University of Virginia

School of Medicine, University of Colorado

School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester

Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine

The revised list can be found in full on the council's website.