On Doctors

Most of you probably have a friend or two who excelled in their academic curriculum in school. Most of these gifted individuals would probably go on to obtain a medical degree. Some would get into public institutions and some wouldn’t. Some may even have to fork a hefty some of money to get through med school. Lets look at the figures. The annual fee in the National University of Singapore alone is a whooping $116, 640 that’s about RM285k a year! That’s excluding housing and other living expenses. Assuming you were to invest RM285k a year at the current interest rate of 2.5% p.a. for 5 years, by using this formula:



You would have RM1, 535,500 at the end of the 5 years. That’s one point five million ringgit. A doctor working for the government can expect to earn about RM3.5k, RM4k tops. How long then would it take for the good doctor to earn back the money he invested in his education? Are you surprised then if I were to tell you that we as a country are short of doctors? 9000 men short in fact.

So where have all the medical students of Malaysia gone? Well presumably they’ve went on to stay at whichever country they got their medical degrees. I mean Australia is short on doctors and hell they pay well! About AUD70, 000 p.a.! I mean its something like this; a med school graduate who was offered to work in John Hopkins Hospital chose to work in Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II instead. Don’t know where that is? Well neither do I. It’s also not likely to happen I think. I mean its something like getting to bring Megan Fox out on a date in a Lamborghini but instead you choose to take Rafidah Aziz on a date on a Honda Cub! I’m sorry but that’s just not going to happen.


Photo editing courtesy of Malaysia LAH!

Of course it would be rather parochial for me to assume that a doctor is only motivated by money. Some act upon pure selflessness. Doctor Snuggles and Doctor Dolittle for example. Although the last time I checked they are entirely fictional. I mean one can only derive so much utility from acts of pure altruism alone. So when I found out that the doctor to population ratio is going from 1:1,361 today to 1:400 by 2020 I was genuinely staggered! How is it possible? Easy! We are simply going to accept doctors from just about every known and quite possibly unknown medical institution in the world. 320 institutions around the world! In contrast Singapore is only recognizing 120! Its as if Malaysia has gotten a shortage of beef and decided that the best course of action is to import Mad Cows from Britain because supply is just so plentiful! We in Malaysia need doctors. Good ones too. Something has to be done!