Taiwanese doctor, 48, unable to practise medicine in S'pore, volunteers at hospitals while being stay-at-home-dad

A family doctor from Taiwan has been unable to practise medicine after moving to Singapore to be with his family.

Hsu Cheng Yuan, 48, has yet to become a registered doctor in Singapore because he has not been able to secure a slot for the final stage of his assessment.

However, he has chosen to dedicate his time to caring for his two young children as a stay-at-home dad, while spending his remaining time volunteering at a local community hospital.

Moved to Singapore

Hsu's story was shared on YouTube channel Glimmer in Life, which is run by the Tzu-Chi Foundation in Singapore.

According to the nearly 13-minute documentary, he previously worked as an attending physician in the family medicine department of a public hospital in Taiwan.

Hsu's wife Maeda Momoe is now a doctor in Singapore after graduating from Duke-NUS Medical School.

The couple met in the U.S. when Momoe was a Duke-NUS student.

They were in a long-distance relationship before they got married and started a family.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Hsu and his children were separated from Momoe for another few years due to travel restrictions.

The family eventually reunited and settled down in Singapore.

Unable to become a registered doctor after years

While Hsu wanted to continue his passion and work as a registered doctor in Singapore, he faced an unexpected obstacle.

Hsu has passed the first and second stages, but has had difficulty getting a slot for the third one which is a clinical practical exam.

Quota for clinical practical exams are limited — Hsu said that he applied twice but was unsuccessful both times.

In the meantime, Hsu decided to shift his focus: to his young family, and to serving the local patients in a different way.

Stay-at-home dad

While his wife works, Hsu cares for his children by preparing meals and ferrying them to and from school.

He shared that he learnt a few recipes on YouTube, including a Taiwanese favourite, braised pork rice.

Despite his young age, Hsu's son shared in the video that he is aware his father moved from Taiwan to Singapore "because he missed his mum".

The boy also proudly showed the production team a "film" his father made using Lego bricks and toys.

In his spare time, Hsu continues to prepare for his exams but he feels that age is catching up with him.

"Mentally and physically, I just can't keep up like I did when I was younger," he said. "There were many times when I felt like giving up."

Mixed emotions

The halt to Hsu's career has not been easy for him to accept.

Having to give up the patients he had invested effort into in Taiwan, as well as watching former classmates climb the career ladder, created "a very complex mix of emotions" for him.

To Momoe, her husband's sacrifice does not go unnoticed.

"It was really not an easy decision for him to make," she acknowledged.

"Before, perhaps because he was a doctor...helping patients gave him a real sense of achievement.

But now that he's suddenly stopped working and is a stay-at-home dad, he sometimes wonders what on earth is he doing.

It's as if he can't quite find that sense of purpose."

Hsu shared that Momoe tried different ways to cheer him up, especially during a period when he felt constantly anxious.

One thing he fondly remembers her saying was, "Even housewives contribute to a country's GDP," he shared with a laugh.

Hsu considered continuing to practise in Taiwan on a part-time basis, but what keeps him going is simply the desire to spend more time with his children.

He said that he has two more years left to clear his third stage of assessment, which has a total timeframe of six years to complete.

Finding purpose through volunteering

Every two weeks on Wednesday, Hsu volunteers at Yishun Community Hospital.

His role mainly involves chatting with patients and caring for their needs where he can, but Hsu quipped that when he first started out, he found himself talking to patients like a doctor.

Particularly in the geriatric ward, a field of medicine that was once his specialty, he would check on elderly patients' conditions the way he used to.

"At first, I wasn't quite sure what to do. Even though I was still in a hospital ward, I'd suddenly taken on the role of a volunteer."

But Hsu soon learnt to look past seeing them as patients and simply as people, by simply chatting with and getting to know their interests better.

Volunteering has enabled him to "let go of much of the sense of self that I had built up in the past," Hsu said.

Other than volunteering in the hospital, he also values the opportunity to give health talks to local residents, particularly the elderly.

"I may not be using my skills as a doctor to make money, but I'm delighted to have this opportunity to put my expertise to good use and help people."

Singapore is now home to him, and he hopes to instil in his children the belief that difficulties can be overcome.

"Nothing is set in stone."