Friday, April 3, 2009

Third Medical School - another fait accompli

While accepting that the Straits Times often function as little more than a mouth piece for the gahment, today's editorial about this issue was nonetheless surprising in its bland political correctness. I mean, was the editorial even necessary?

To my mind, Minister's comments about the third medical school was little more than the usual balloons gahment agencies float prior to making their decisions known to the public. Often decisions have already been made.... or almost entirely made. Just need the final rubber stamp. Short of there being some likelihood of a tsunami of public antipathy, the decisions usually pass and become a relatively bland news item when they are finally announced.

This is likely for the third school. There has already been much corridor talk for some time. Tan Tock Seng Hosiptal. An US big name (which won't be mentioned here) school to link up with. Emphasis on community medicine? Up and running pretty soon (couple of years, did someone say?). As I understand, things are already at a pretty mature stage of discussions.

So what's the point of my post?... A desperate attempt on behalf of the many passionate medical educators (real ones... not the hot-air pedagogists) that an appropriate consideration be given to training of doctors for our local health needs, and not be too distracted by chasing wealth, fame and glory associated with our external biomedical economy. It's not too late to try and get our priorities sorted out.

So, please sir, may we have some crumbs off the plate?

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