I am a believer of market force and I think it will drive the consequences like these:
- HA will go ahead with hiring limited license doctors.
- The manpower shortage can be alleviated and there is less urgency for doctor’s salary increment and promotions.
- The private doctors keep defaming these limited license doctors.
- The general public starts to cast further doubt on the quality of doctors in HA.
- Locally graduated doctors working in HA will further lose their morale because of criticisms from the private sector and loss of confidence in the lay public.
- The drop-out rate of locally graduated doctors in HA will be aggravated due to low salary, poor prospect and low morale.
- The private market keep expanding because of the increasing demand for high quality healthcare in this region (SE Asia, China and even US because of outsourcing for lower cost outside US) and it keeps absorbing doctors from HA.
- Income of doctors in private market remain very high because of these unmet needs, and the salary gap between HA and private is widening.
- More local doctors left HA and HA needs to hire more limited license doctors to replace the shortage.
- The quality requirements of limited license doctor recruitment can no longer be upheld because of huge demand.
- Go back to (2).
I won’t comment whether this is good or bad. This is what’s happening in Singapore but the situation is under tight regulation by its strong government. I am doubtful whether our government has this kind of caliber.
3 comments:
Dear Warren and Harrison,
The weakest link in the sequence is the private demand. Singapore created a super private market for Southeast Asia through substantial government influence. With our weak government, I am not sure if the private hospitals and doctors themselves are sufficient to generate a positive feedback loop.
Cheers,
VW
Dear VW,
Private hospital can't. Doctors can't. Our government can't. But Mr. Market CAN! See what's happening in the obstetric service?
This is exactly what HA wants to do, telling the public openly that they will only provide second rate service and "please pay by yourself if you can afford". They don't really care if more experienced doctor left, what they care is just head counts and capping the salaries.
But I don't understand why they just import doctors but not nurses and paramedics, I think the high cost of medical expense is also due to nurses and paramedics rather than doctor alone, Nowadays an experienced radiographer cost the same as specialist MO. Dietician, physio all cost almost the same as MO. Is it because doctors are the weakest ?
Post a Comment