In a recent press report, Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek, rightly pointed out the fallacies of becoming a doctor for sake of glamour. I think parents and students who are considering medicine as a career must take his advice seriously.

It is astonishing to realise we are churning out 1,600 doctors every year, with the number increasing to 2,500 annually by 2010. So the market is going to be very competitive, even for specialists, as we will have a glut of doctors by 2020.

It takes an average of 10 to12 years of really hard work for an individual to become a specialist in a certain discipline. He would further need another 4-5 years to get the clinical experience before he is really ready to become an independent practicing clinician.

This is a very long time in the life of an individual and unless he is motivated for the right reasons, he would not turn out to be a good and dedicated doctor. Unfortunately, we have many such doctors in our fraternity these days.

Chua and his ministry, however, should not be just interested in fulfilling the nation's doctor-people ratio. They hope to achieve their target ratio of one doctor for every 600 citizens before 2020. This may be possible but it is more important to have quality rather than quantity. The latter can easily achieved but the former requires years of planning and training. Today, our hospitals are losing the services of invaluable experienced specialists, leaving behind young doctors who are not being adequately guided in clinical skills and ethics of the medical profession.

In the 60s and 70s, we had very much fewer doctors and specialists but work went on reasonably well. All patients admitted were seen by the respective specialists daily without fail, sometimes more frequently if the need dictates. Work went on irrespective of whether it was a weekend or public holiday. Furthermore, no overtime or any special allowance of any sort was paid.

Today we have 5-6 times more specialists in the hospitals but still - very frequently - there are complaints that specialists do not see their patients, even the critically ill ones, for days at a stretch. Their patients are managed by junior doctors with minimal experience. They are paid all sorts of allowances today but there is simply no dedication on the part of our doctors to their profession. This is a new but sad phenomenon that is developing in our country today - getting paid for not working.

Medicine has become commercialised and the government must stop this rot immediately. Educate and counsel our students so that only those who really have the dedication go ahead and do medicine. If one wants to make quick money, there are many other means, not medicine.

Insofar as doctors are concerned, the ministry should ideally strive for both quality and quantity. If we need to compromise on this it should be the latter.