More foreigners are being hired by Singapore public hospitals as labour crunch deepens

Over 1 in 4 physicians are non natives.

The city-state is grappling with a crippling shortage of trained medical staff, and it has manifested in the local and foreigner ratio of workers in Singapore’s public hospitals and polyclinics.

According to a report by BMI Research, more than 2,100 or over 25% of physicians working at public hospitals and polyclinics in Singapore are foreigners.

The number is also in stark contrast to the private sector that employed only 156 doctors who were neither Singaporeans nor permanent residents, according to the Singapore Medical Council’s annual report.

“The number continues to grow as the country faces a shortage of trained medical staff. In a bid to meet the rising demand for doctors, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has worked with the Education Ministry to raise the number of students accepted into medical schools from 350 in 2012 to 460 in 2015,” the report said.