A PROPOSED scheme for public hospitals to draw more Singapore medical students studying overseas by giving them a pre-employment grant will need to be tested to see if it is sustainable, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan wrote yesterday in his blog.

This is because the new scheme would increase hospitals' costs, he wrote.

While the hospitals are still working out the details, the grant will probably be targeted at Singaporeans in the last two years of their programmes in top medical schools recognised by the Singapore Medical Council, he wrote.

They would need to have good grades, especially in their clinical-training years.

Under the proposed scheme, the grant will help cover a significant part - for example, 60 per cent - of the tuition fee for the remaining years of study, subject to a cap of perhaps $50,000 a year, Mr Khaw wrote.

In return, the recipient would be bonded to the hospital that gave him the grant for a minimum period - for example, four years - including a year of housemanship.

Now, students who graduate from NUS serve a five-year bond, including a year of housemanship.

This measure is being considered because targeting fresh graduates is the cheapest way to recruit more foreign-trained doctors, Mr Khaw explained yesterday.

The Ministry of Health wants to increase the number of doctors here, so that it can reduce patients' waiting time to get an appointment and see doctors, and also allow doctors to give more time and attention to patients, he wrote.

The results of the latest patient-satisfaction survey conducted on patients at public hospitals here showed that the long wait to see a doctor remains a bugbear, he noted.

This is even though the number of doctors here has already grown from fewer than 4,000 in 2007 to more than 4,600 now.

This growth has been fuelled by an increase in both foreign- and Singapore-trained doctors.

The National University of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine will increase its intake, from 260 in 2008 to 300 by next year.

The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School took in 56 students last year, double its 2007 intake.

Mr Khaw wrote in his blog yesterday: "As we ramp up local training and reduce the shortage, the scheme may hopefully become redundant."

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