Display of qualifications

Medical Qualifications

Section 64(1) of the Medical Registration Act (MRA) stipulates that no registered medical practitioner shall:

a) Use or exhibit or publish in any card, letter, stationery, nameplate, signboard, placard, circular, handbill or any notice displayed at the premises, used by him for the practice of medicine, any qualification other than the qualifications which are entered in any register kept under this Act or which has been approved by the SMC; or

b) Use any title, addition or designation other than the title, addition or designation which has been approved by the SMC.

Any person who contravenes Section 64 of the MRA may be subject to disciplinary proceedings under this Act.

Registered medical practitioners will only be allowed to display qualifications that:

1. are entered in any register kept under the MRA; or

2. are approved by the SMC and listed in the List of Medical Qualifications Eligible for Consideration for Conditional Registration [PDF, 146 KB] or List of Displayable Additional Qualifications [PDF, 33 KB].

Additional Qualifications (AQs)

Medical Practitioners are to refer to SMC’s latest circular [PDF, 157 KB] and note that honorary qualifications are generally not acceptable as displayable additional qualifications (AQs). AQs for display need to be acquired through structured training, coursework and examinations.

An AQ has to minimally satisfy all of the requirements listed below.

If any of the requirements cannot be fulfilled, the application to display the AQ will not be approved.

These would include but not limited to, the following requirements:

1. Structured curriculum, comprising clinical training or, a mixture of clinical training and academic coursework or, wholly academic coursework, that must be related to medicine and which is designed specifically towards a single qualification title; (currently, the only local honorary qualification that SMC accepts is the FAMS, which is associated with specialist and family physician accreditation)

2. Assessment-based learning, that includes an evaluation system on clear coursework objectives, and with tests and/or examinations and/or thesis submission;

3. Applying or pooling of past training/merits gained from past work experience/research/study courses to earn multiple qualification titles from various institutions is strictly not allowed;

4. Must be medical or medical-science related;

5. Does not contain words that mislead the public into thinking that the qualification is the equivalent of a specialist or family medicine qualification;

6. Conferring institute must be of national or international standing; and

7. Previous coursework, training, assessment and examinations of another qualification cannot be wholly or substantially re-used to apply for the additional qualification. If such educational or training credits from a previous professional qualification (whether done locally or in another country) is used to obtain the additional qualification, the additional qualification must require at least one more year of (or equivalent period of) structured full-time clinical and/or academic training and a pass in its own examination.

Registered medical practitioners can apply with the SMC to have their qualification entered in the SMC’s register(s) as a displayable additional qualification (AQ) by submitting an online application. A non-refundable fee of S$100 for an application (per qualification) is payable only via credit card.

The online application must be supported by a copy of the qualification. If the certificate or scroll is in a language other than English, a copy of the English translation must be provided as well.

If the qualification has not been approved by the SMC, the online application has to be further supported by the conferring institution’s documents which outlined the course details such as:

• Course details (i.e. purpose, aim and objectives of the course)

• Course structure/ curriculum

• Course duration

• Entry requirements

• Delivery of course (e.g. internet-based or distance learning)

• Method of assessment (e.g. exam-based, assignment-based, research/thesis-based)

Separately, the medical practitioner must arrange for a Letter of Verification (LV) of the qualification to be issued by the conferring institution, and emailed to the SMC directly at SMC_Verifications@spb.gov.sg. LV must be sent from the conferring institution’s official email address/domain. Otherwise, the SMC may conduct source verification and a longer processing time will be expected. The LV must be on the letterhead of the conferring institution and contain the following information:

• Name of graduate

• Date of entry into course/programme

• Date of graduation/conferment

• Title of the qualification conferred

The SMC shall not be responsible for any payment incurred arising from the request of the LV.

Once the SMC has verified and approved the AQ, the AQ will be displayed against the name of the medical practitioner in the online register under the Search for Registered Doctors.

SMC has the prerogative to withdraw incomplete applications if the above information and documents are not provided.