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The Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH) is looking to recruit 180 doctors from India within three years, 8World News reported.

In response to queries by the Chinese media outlet, the holding company of Singapore’s public healthcare clusters, said that it is recruiting foreign doctors to support the country's workforce and reduce the "heavy" workload of current doctors.

According to MOHH, about 700 junior doctors are recruited annually, of which more than 90 per cent are local.

MOHH: Over 90 per cent of junior doctors recruited are local

According to MOHH, the junior doctors are either from one of the three local medical schools or have returned from studying overseas at a recognised university, The Straits Times further reported, quoting a spokesperson from MOHH.

The local medical schools are the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and the Duke-NUS Medical School.

Doctors trained overseas must be from an approved university

All doctors who are recruited from overseas must have graduated from medical schools that are on the Second Schedule of the Medical Registration Act.

There are two universities from India listed on this act as of Sep. 1, 2022 — the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

For doctors who are trained overseas at such universities, they are granted only "conditional registration" for clinical practice initially, the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson also pointed out that MOHH has been recruiting doctors not just from India, but from other countries as well.

The Straits Times highlighted that the MOHH spokesperson did not comment on whether the holdings company intends to expand the recruitment of local doctors trained overseas, or whether junior doctors from India constitute the majority of non-locals.

Statement follows online hullabaloo over MOHH notice about recruiting doctors in India

The Straits Times further reported that the statement by MOHH follows hullabaloo that emerged regarding an ongoing online call for a tender by a recruitment agency to provide services for recruiting doctors in India.

The call for a tender ends on Oct. 10.

The notice was picked up on social media, as well as The Online Citizen, which ran an article about allegations of fraud among Indian doctors and students.

A letter was also sent to The Straits Times' forum, calling for an explanation over the recruitment, and whether Singaporean doctors who are based overseas can be recruited instead.

Top image by @impulsq via Unsplash