I REFER to yesterday's letter, 'Unfair to subsidise overseas medical students', by Miss Samantha Rachel Yeo and agree with her that it would be unfair to subsidise overseas medical students without making them sign a bond to work in Singapore.

However, as Singapore lacks doctors both in service and clinical research, it may not be a bad idea to sponsor local students overseas while waiting for the third medical school to be built.

In return, they can sign a bond with the Ministry of Health to serve here after they complete their studies. This will help ease the demands on the National University of Singapore's Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. This scheme can then be slowly phased out when the third medical school is completed.

In her letter, Miss Yeo also mentioned that studying medicine overseas was not an option for her if she wished to be subsidised for her education, but I feel that if a change in policy benefits the future generation, it is short-sighted to fight the change just because she does not benefit from it.

However, I am sure Singapore will live up to its reputation for looking at things with the long-term good in mind and continue to formulate policies that benefit not just current Singaporeans but future generations as well.

Dr Gary Ang Yee

This article was first published in The Straits Times.