That’s a good question to consider.
1. Acclimatisation (work hours, culture, hospital IT system)
Local grads are immersed in Singapore hospitals since year 3, and so are much more “acclimatised” to the Singapore system as compared to overseas grads.
It may take overseas grads a while to adapt to various aspects of the Singapore system. Examples include: the IT system, medication prescription, patient discharge notes, ward round style, early starts and weekends, call system etc.
I’ve overheard from MOHH staff (don’t quote) that Australian grads generally need longer than UK grads to acclimatise. Eg. if UK grads take 6 months to acclimatise, Australia grads may take 12 months. Probably because Australia’s work culture is much more chilled, and working conditions are generally much better.
A longer acclimatisation period is also needed if you chose to do your House Officer (HO) year in your country of study (to obtain full registration), for obvious reasons.
2. Networking opportunities for residency training
Are you disadvantaged when it comes to selection for residency training, compared to local grads? Perhaps, to some extent.
Hanging around for longer in Singapore hospitals generally enables local grads to network with the right speciality departments, and take up relevant projects that may help with residency applications.
Yet, I also know of colleagues who managed to get straight into residency upon returning to Singapore. Some of the savvier ones spent their relatively long summer holidays shadowing at local hospitals, and participating in projects over their final few years.
3. Knowledge gap
This may be what you worry about most, but it’s unwarranted.
You accumulate the necessary experience/know-how to be a good and competent junior doctor while on the job – most of the book knowledge acquired in med school by rote learning will have been forgotten by the end of your first year as a doctor anyway.
As a final word, there are plenty of overseas grads who’ve returned to Singapore over the last few years, as a result of the success of the PEG grant programme and overseas recruitment drive. I’d suggest that you spend some time talking to them to gain some insight into the various challenges they faced upon returning.
Cheers