Frequently Asked Questions

Referral letters or letters of recommendation would certainly help to boost your ranking when you are being considered for the PGY1 Programme. You are encouraged to attach up to three letters of recommendation in your application form.

*Only local medical graduates can apply for the SingHealth PGY1 Programme: Duke-NUS Medical School, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

Once your school* releases your final examination results, do give the SingHealth PGY1 Programme some time to work with MOHH; if your application has been accepted, you will receive an email notification of acceptance from the programme.

*Applicable to local medical schools: Duke-NUS Medical School, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

All graduating seniors from the local medical schools, who are interested in joining the SingHealth PGY1 Programme, would need to submit the SingHealth PGY1 Programme Application Form to express their intent. The process is not automatic even if all postings are in SingHealth. 

Importantly, there is a contract to be signed with SingHealth before the start of PGY1 year. Hence, even if some of the non-SingHealth PGY1s realise that they are posted to SingHealth for all 3 postings after all (posting announcements may be released approximately 1 to 1.5 months prior to each posting), they cannot opt into the programme as the contract needs to be signed before their PGY1 year starts.

1. ​There are no interviews conducted for the applicants of SingHealth PGY1 Programme. The programme needs to assess each applicant in a fair and objective manner, and exam results are certainly part of the assessment. That being said, the programme also looks at the applicant's letters of recommendations, abstracts and publications and your CV for other extraordinary achievements to determine each applicant's ranking in the application process.
2. The SingHealth PGY1 Programme aims to take in as many PGY1s as possible, but the number of applicants is limited by MOHH and the training capacity in each SingHealth department.
3. An applicant with average or below average results may not necessarily rank lower in the applicant list. SingHealth PGY1 Programme also looks at the applicant's other achievements such as abstracts, publications, referral letters and other achievements mentioned in the CV.

Selection into a SingHealth Residency programme is a highly competitive process. Being a SingHealth PGY1 provides opportunities to network with and demonstrate competencies to the Residency Faculty in the SingHealth cluster. However, the respective Residency Programme Directors (PDs) may prioritise certain aptitudes in their Residents, and this could influence their decision on the eventual list of successful match to their programmes.

The SingHealth Residency programmes can be found here.

​The Specialists Accreditation Board (SAB) determines the qualifications, experience and other conditions; as well as the training programmes which are to be recognised for registration as specialists under the Medical Registration Act. The duration of training for each specialty can be found on SAB website. 

All application details, and information on the SingHealth CS Residency Track are available here.

You can also refer to the FAQs on CS Residency Track here.

The following websites contain comprehensive information on questions related to the Residency training system in Singapore:

1. For general Information about Residency Training, roles and responsibilities of Sponsoring Institutions, click here.

2. For matters concerning eligibility criteria for Residency application, Residency Application Process and Timeline,  Residency Interview and Letter of Reference, click here.

3. Find out more about accreditation bodies and systems for Residency Programmes and Sponsoring Institutions:
AGCME-I
JCST

4. Learn about accreditation as a Specialist in Singapore, click here.

5. Application details and information on Clinician Scientist Residency Track, click here.