Electronic Registration Certificate and Practising Certificate
The 11 healthcare Professional Boards/Councils/Accreditation Boards, including the Singapore Medical Council (SMC), are planning to issue electronic Registration Certificates and Practising Certificates, collectively known as "e-Certs", in phases from end 2021 onwards.
More details can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3I8WhKZ.
2022 SMA Annual General Meeting
Please see below for details of SMA's upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Date: 24 April 2022, Sunday
Time: 2 pm to 4 pm
The AGM will be held virtually, due to the prevailing COVID-19 safe-distancing measures.
Please send an email to szeyong@sma.org.sg if you wish to:
- Confirm your attendance (please provide your full name as it appears in the SMC register and MCR number);
- Submit resolutions and/or proposed constitution amendments; or
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Submit nominations to fill the ten vacancies in the SMA Council.
Members who wish to move any resolution or raise amendments to the Constitution and Rules at the AGM are to give notice in writing to the Honorary Secretary by 12 pm on 25 March 2022, in accordance with SMA Constitution Article XI, Section 1, Sub-Section (iii) and Article XII, Section 2, respectively.
Members are invited to submit nominations of candidates to fill the ten vacancies in the Council, in accordance with Article VIII, Section 3a of the SMA Constitution.
Nominations must be signed by two Ordinary/Life/Spouse Members and contain a consent to act, if elected, signed by the person nominated.
All completed forms should reach us by 12 pm on 25 March 2022.
Potential financial conflict of interest
SMA wrote to SMC seeking clarification after receiving complaints from our Members regarding Asia MD Pte Ltd. In letters sent to doctors, it claimed to refer new patients to doctors at $100 each.
This is a potential financial conflict of interest, and a possible breach of the SMC Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines (ECEG).
Below is SMC's response to the concern raised:
"SMC agrees that doctors must not make payments to third parties so as to be referred patients by them. The referral of patients to see specialists must be made without the specialist paying a fee to the referring source for an appointment. The patient should not be made to pay increased charges to cover such fees paid by doctors to referral sources, which is not ethical and will increase healthcare costs.
The Singapore Medical Association may therefore wish to highlight to your members the importance of adhering to Guideline H3 of the SMC 2016 Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines ("2016 ECEG"), which can be accessed via the link here, if they encounter such letters. If there are evidence of such practices and the named doctors who accept such referrals, they may consider informing SMC of the details."
For reference, Members can access the SMC ECEG at https://bit.ly/3po1ST3.
Joining Integrated Shield Plan (IP) panels
Members have given feedback about encountering difficulties when applying to join IP panels. We have brought this to the attention of the Life Insurance Association (LIA), and they have collated a list comprising the processes, requirements and considerations of the various insurers. The list can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3AaCGX0. We hope our Members will find this list useful. We thank LIA and the insurers for collating the list.