My letter to Dr Kim Byung Gun of BK Clinic Part 2

I have received Dr Kim's email. It was well, very short and snappy.

English is eh...NOT his first language.

Well, he may be willing to wait, but I am not.

Like what SO said, if Mohamed cannot go to the mountain, then let the mountain come to Mohamed.

So I did some research on the Singapore Medical Council and found out that their processing time for medical registration is 3-4 weeks!

So why is Dr Kim's application still not approve? How inefficient is that? The members of the SMC are the top local doctors and surgeons and they are taking months to come to a decision? How difficult can it be? According to the site, the council just need to verify the documents submitted and come to a decision.

Unless...Dr Kim failed some test, like the English proficiency test or something like that. After all, there is a minimum English requirement.
• IELTS - at least 7 for EACH component (Listening, Reading, Writing AND Speaking)
• TOEFL - 250 marks for computer-based test or 600 marks for paper-based test or 100 marks for internet-based test
• OET - Grade B and above

Are members of the SMC threatened by the presence of a world renown plastic surgeon?? Afraid of losing their business?

Well, they should!!

So I emailed Dr Kim back with further suggestions.

Let's hope that his applications get approve quickly. I want my sharp nose!

And yeah, I am also think of contacting a certain local Minister. But then as the Asean Summit 2009 is coming up in 10-12 April, I decided to wait till after that to contact the Minister.

And please, I am not working for Dr Kim, nor does he pay me a single cent. He is not offering me free plastic surgery. In fact, he is not even offering me any discounts. I am also NOT family, nor a personal friend. In fact, I have never met him or consult with him yet!

I am just a concerned consumer, potential patient of Dr Kim BG, who wants a nice sharp nose done locally.

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Hi Dr Kim,

Thank you for your prompt response.

I understand that you respect the decision of the Singapore Medical Council.

But if you apply last year, that means you have been waiting for more than 4 months for the approval.

Under the FAQ of the SMC, http://www.ifaq.gov.sg/smc/apps/fcd_faqmain.aspx, the processing time for medical registration is about 3-4 weeks.

As stated in the SMC website....
Provided all documentation required by the SMC is submitted, the average processing time required for processing an application for medical registration is about 3 - 4 weeks.


So your application is definitely taking too long.

I would hence suggest that you contact the Singapore Medical Council to check on the status of your application.

And should they inform you that your application is pending, or still under processing or ...(touchwood) unsuccessful, I would further suggest that you email the Minister of Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan (email below) for help. He would be able to facilitate your application process.

Alternatively, you can also seek advice from either the Korean embassy in Singapore or the Singapore embassy in Korea.

Singapore is gearing itself to be a medical hub and someone of your expertise would be of great asset and contribution to Singapore.

I certainly hope that you can consider my suggestion to check with SMC again on your application status.

Thanks.


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Thank you for your letter !!!!

I will consider your recommendation.

I want to respect the decision of singapore medical council.

so I am still waiting.

I will try to do something with your advice.

Thank you again.

Dr. Kim Byung Gun

My letter to Dr Kim Byung Gun of BK Clinic Part 1

Well, I thought about it. And I have decided upon a course of action. I decided to write to Dr Kim Byung Gun of BK Clinic and offer him some unsolicited suggestions.

And why I suggested that he email the Minister of Health direct? Cos I remembered a few years ago, some young entrepreneurs wanted to set up a car wash business in those multi storey carparks.

The thing is they are the pioneers of this concept and it has never been done before. And so they applied to the official goverment agency, which I think is the Housing Board, HDB.

However, as this has never been done before, they were sent around in circles to various government departments. The reasons I think is cos the top officials at these government agencies are unable to make this type of decisions.

I believed that there were concerns then about the type of detergent used affecting the building structure and whether such business would interrupt other users of the car parks.

So in desperation and frustrations, the entrepreneurs contacted the Prime Minister? or some other Minister? And finally their idea came to fruition!

I remembered reading about this some years back. And if it can work for some application for car wash licence, I am sure that it can work for some medical clinic application.

After all, our country is gearing to be the medical hub of the region and Dr Kim is too valuable an asset to lose to other countries!

Eh, the email is not that well-phrased cos it was done at 6.30am and I am sleepy. My brain is half dead around this time and this is the best I can think of.

Let's wait for the good news!

And yah..I am going to bed now for my beauty sleep.

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Hi Dr Kim,

I am one of those who are waiting for you to come to Singapore to set up a clinic.

I am sorry to hear that your application is taking such a long time to approve.

May I suggest that you write in directly to the Minister of Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan.
His email is at khaw_boon_wan@moh.gov.sg

This is his real email address. You can find it at http://www.sgdi.gov.sg/ under Ministry of Health.

As he is the overall person in charge, he could be able to help you speed up your application approval .Just write him and tell him how much you want to set up a clinic in Singapore.

The thing about Singapore is that sometimes one need to approach the top dog to get things done.

There have been similar cases, not involving health care though, whereby the local government ministries here take a long time to approve some cases.

But once the Minister or member of parliament is approached, things get done very fast.

I wish you all best.

Cheers.