ADMISSION OF FOREIGN DOCTORS

Dr Tan Cheng Bock asked the Minister for Trade and Industry and Minister for Health if he will elaborate on his expression "without demanding reciprocity" when he stated that Singapore's "medical registry should be open to foreign doctors with recognized qualifications without demanding reciprocity."; whether this proposal is to be limited to the public service only or to the private sector as well; and whether it is the intention to admit a selective type of high calibre expertise only or all foreign doctors with minimal recognized qualification.

Mr Goh Chok Tong: In preparing the Economic Development Plan for the Eighties, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has suggested that the medical registry should be open to foreign doctors with recognized qualifications without demanding reciprocity. This was to ensure that there is no closed-shop practice. I have now been advised by the Ministry of Health that reciprocity has never been a condition for registration by the Singapore Medical Council. Foreign recognition of Singapore qualifications is not a prerequisite to our recognising foreign qualifications. Besides medical graduates of the National University of Singapore, any doctor holding medical qualifications listed in the Schedule to the Medical Registration Act is eligible for registration in Singapore. A doctor holding any other unlisted medical qualification may also be registered if the Medical Council is satisfied that he possesses medical or surgical knowledge, experience and skill which are of value to Singapore. This principle applies whether the doctor is working in the public or private sector.

It is not our intention to limit admission of foreign doctors to specialists in selected disciplines. Any qualified or skilled foreigner is welcomed to practise his profession or skill in Singapore. In the case of a doctor, he has to satisfy the Singapore Medical Council that he possesses the requisite skill.