Commentary: For young doctors, the price of breaking bonds could be higher than they think

Young people seeking a rapid rise in pay scale will be disappointed if they become doctors, says the author.Breaking one's public service bond for the more lucrative private sector may seem like an attractive choice for young medical professionals — but such a trade-off comes with certain risks, says this veteran doctor. At the same time, more can be done to increase young doctors' job satisfaction and protect them from burnout.

Back in 1996 when I started my traineeship in internal medicine, we rotated through different hospitals and would not know which department in which hospital we’d end up at during the three-year period. Nowadays, residents — trainees for specialities — are confined to one of the three Singapore healthcare clusters . Trainees stay within the hospitals of each cluster, making their posting locations more predictable.

Established aesthetics doctors can be expected to make a lot more — to the point where the Government would likely never be able to match what the private sector can offer in full.Graduating from medical school is only the beginning; it takes many years of supervised work to fully, safely train a doctor. Five years is just the correct minimum duration.

With more cash on hand, private-sector outfits could redeem S$100,000 bonds with ease. But this will not be strings-free. More likely, these private centres would impose another bond or long contract with the young doctors. Could we increase their pay even more? Could we add “hardship compensation” to unpopular duties, such as working on weekends and public holidays and after office hours?

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