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Singapore only approves medical diplomas from NTU Medical School for Taiwan

In the latest review, Taiwan's Chang Gung University's School of Medicine has been removed from the list.

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Singapore only approves medical diplomas from NTU Medical School for Taiwan

(Photo courtesy of National Taiwan University)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Singapore has decided not to recognize 57 foreign medical education diplomas from January 1, 2020, covering 20 countries and regions including the United States, Britain, Australia, Taiwan, China and Japan.

This means only 103 medical diplomas will be recognized at the start of the year 2020. As for Taiwan, the only institution on the list is National Taiwan University's medical school.

Singapore has reviewed the list of foreign medical schools since 2003 six times so far. Although there are many universities in Taiwan with medical schools, Singapore at the time only recognized the National Taiwan University School of Medicine and the Chang Gung University's School of Medicine.

In the latest review, Chang Gung University's School of Medicine has been removed from the list, according to the Central News Agency.

Singapore only approves medical diplomas from NTU Medical School for Taiwan

(healthprofessionals.gov.sg)

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) issued a joint statement Thursday, April 18, saying that Singapore originally admitted 160 foreign medical diplomas, but will reduce the number to 103 from January next year because the number of enrolled students in Singapore's own medical schools has grown steadily.

Therefore it will not have to be overly dependent on the introduction of foreign doctors in response to Singapore's aging society.

However, Singapore will regularly review foreign medical education diplomas to ensure overseas-trained physicians meet the medical needs of Singapore.

In addition to the original Singapore National University (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School Of Medicine, Singapore established Duke-NUS Medical School and Nanyang Technological University's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in 2005 and 2013 respectively.

The number of students enrolled in these three medical schools reached 500 last year.

Li Guanyi (李冠毅), a practicing physician in Singapore, stressed that the latest review list no longer recognizes 57 medical diplomas abroad, mainly because the manpower of Singapore's local-trained physicians is getting saturated and has solved the shortage of doctors in local hospitals.

The full list of 103 medical school diplomas recognized by Singapore beginning January 2020 is here.