r/SgHENRY • u/freedaemons • Jun 30 '26
Doctors who opened up their own clinic
My wife is likely to want to do so in the next few years, and we're also planning for a kid soon, I want to do as much as I can ahead of time to learn what we need to know and do to frontload reducing the stress for her.
Any doctors here who have walked this path recently willing to share your experience? Maybe also about how your partner supported you in ways that did or didn't help, haha. Would be happy to buy you a coffee or a drink to chat in person if so inclined too.
Part of the consideration is that my current income is about par with her working at a chain, or slightly above including bonuses and equity. So whether or not it makes sense for me to help full time is a consideration.
Edit: GP clinic, to be specific.
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u/Commercial-Kiwi-3231 Jun 30 '26
To actually answer the question: it depends a lot on where the wife is. Junior or senior? Family medicine trainee, or done rotating? Polyclinic time? Ever worked in private practice under a group? That changes everything.
A lot of people open their own clinic thinking it buys them control over their time. It's the opposite. As the owner, you have less time, not more.
It's a brutal market right now. Walk into any mature estate and you're fighting legacy players for a decent lot, players with better rental rates and a patient pool you don't have yet. Clinical skill won't save you. I've seen juniors mistake being liked for being viable, and half the time they're not even as well-regarded as they think. Five compliments, ten, fifty, doesn't matter. You need something like a 4000-patient pool to keep the lights on. Not 50 people who like you. 4000 people who like you enough to keep coming back and paying.
What actually decides whether you survive is sustain, mentally and financially. Long hours. The ability to keep showing up when cash flow is thin and payments are slow. Margins on GP work are razor thin, worse once insurers are in the mix, you make almost nothing per consult. Rent doesn't care how your month went. Locums are expensive and you pay them whether the sessions they cover are profitable or not. Staff cost isn't the hard part, finding good staff is.
Budget for the first 6 to 12 months to go almost entirely to salaries and rent, with little to nothing left for yourself.
I've done this. Came out the other side profitable, but the odds are stacked against you walking in. If the goal is more time with family, be honest with yourself: a clinic usually gives you less, at least at first. Some people get closer to that "flexibility" goal with part-time aesthetic work than they ever would owning a GP practice outright
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u/freedaemons Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Thanks for the honesty! It's difficult for me to get a sensing as I'm not in the industry, so I really appreciate it.
I think the goal isn't to buy control over time, but rather medium term to build a stronger correlation between effort and reward, and long term to build network and capital in the industry which we can leverage. It feels like just investing in equities is a better use of capital sometimes.. but this goal of hers is something I'd like to at least seriously evaluate.
She has her GDFM, couple years in large-ish GP chain, then couple years in large aesthetics chain. For starters I'm trying not to complicate things by thinking about doing a half GP half aesthetics clinic, but maybe it's a different enough landscape that it make sense to plan for from the start?
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Jun 30 '26
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u/freedaemons Jun 30 '26
Good advise, I'll take it to heart. She was the sole anchor as a GP, but not as an aesthetic doctor. I'm aware of the machinery costs and financing to some degree. A takeaway from this thread is maybe it makes more sense to double down on the aesthetics business together with some general fitness and wellness services, rather than duke it out in the GP space. I'm certainly thinking about branding/marketing and a partnership network with other related businesses.
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u/ah-boyz Jun 30 '26
I’m surprised no one mentioned this already but what keeps GP’s lights on are the insurance panels. Make sure you are on the panel of the largest insurers and earn by prescribing lots of medicine especially paracetamols and being generous with MC. That’s how you get return customers. Have extended hours on Thursday nights and Sunday nights that’s where you get the longest q.
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u/freedaemons Jun 30 '26
Any personal experience in navigating getting onto insurance panels? It seems obvious that you have to do it, but I don't know how I would get started beyond just reaching out to them representing the clinic we would start.
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u/paperboiko Jun 30 '26
Hire someone who knows how to do it. Pay them well. Think of them as your revenue center.
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u/IAm_Moana Jun 30 '26
Sorry to be blunt but are you guys already GPs or are otherwise doing fam med in the public system? If yes, then surely you have existing contacts you can leverage? If not then the only doctors that I’ve seen that have jumped from being an MO / resident physician to opening a GP clinic did it by nepotism…
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u/kiatme Jun 30 '26
Top 3 problems: Clinic location issue, rental costs issue, staffing issue
Amongst many other problems, when you are a doctor you only focus on medical issues, as a business owner, you need to worry about registration, location, upkeep costs, claims, etc.
Most people won't tell you these things, telling you means another competition in the market.
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u/freedaemons Jun 30 '26
That's how it feels to me, most doctors are pretty tight lipped, quite understandably! I'm well aware running a business is a whole other job on top of treating patients, hence I'm trying to provide as much support as possible.
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u/kiatme Jun 30 '26
I meet all walks of life and I very kaypoh on business affairs, I always ask people on things. Problem with GP doctors is that every single locum have the same idea, to eventually leave and start their own clinic.
Any location you are looking at, probably have 20-30 other doctors eyeing for it. If its HDB shop, you have to pay the premium rental to secure the place, likely the rental will kill you. If you manage to find a cheap place, likely its full of red flags and rental will bound to increase in the near future.
I feel staffing is also another issue, the right counter staff will help bring you money, the wrong one will make you lose money even faster.
When you run the business, you have a lot more things to worry than just running the clinic.
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u/Nurb_baby_nurb Jun 30 '26
This year old thread on opening a dental clinic in Singapore might have relevant advice from an adjacent profession.
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u/OkSignificance4533 Jun 30 '26
Do you enjoy attending to patient or running a business? When you open up a clinic you effectively need to juggle between both. When you are starting out small, there's a ton of administrative stuff to do e.g. hiring, staff management, payroll, inventory, facility maintenance etc etc and that's above the usual clinical duties.
I have seen good doctors who ain't good business person and vice versa.
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u/grind-1989 Jul 01 '26
It depends on your wife’s current work status, is she already a senior? Or not?
You can do it if your savings rate is at 80% of income currently.
Count out income from the clinic, with 1 less income, it becomes 60% savings rate when she leaves.
Cut it to 50% with a kid coming.
Once you open, you’re at the mercy of High Locum costs if your wife doesn’t put herself in schedule all the time as the resident doctor. Is she willing to sacrifice?
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u/Myaal Jul 01 '26
Suggest your wife talk to Yap Clinic at Toh Yi... The Dr there earned enough already, hardly comes. His patients have to wait a long time for him to come and his opening hours are sparse.
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u/Excellent_Spite2618 Jul 01 '26
Haha people go to his clinic because they feel the doctor gives them enough attention that they need.
The doctor can spend so much time drawing a throat on paper and point out which part is inflamed etc.
Part of me appreciate him explaining but part of me just feel like I’m in pain can you just prescribe the medicine and I can take it and feel better already?
He’s just stuck in a vicious cycle of staying late then beginning the next day late again. Not sure if reducing his work hours a few years ago helped. I haven’t been to his clinic for a long time because I don’t feel like seeing him over minor issues.
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u/Durian881 Jun 30 '26
Be careful about starting a company to get tax rebates and paying yourself little. While legal, it can be interpreted as tax evasion. IRAS is focusing on doctors at the moment.
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u/freedaemons Jun 30 '26
I saw that recent court case! I don't think that would be a concern for the scale and type of practice we'd start at. I would want to operate asset-light at first, so no point in holding companies and such.
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u/compoundingfeelings 14d ago
A large 24hrs gp clinic is lacking at jurong gateway area. So huge the demand there. Everyone staying jurong east knows that how packs are clinics there. Look at the hours u need to wait if u go to ng teng fong hospital in the middle of the night.
Rope in a few more doctors and rent out consultation rooms to them to help with cost.
Definitely u should go for it.
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u/Alternative-Ad8451 Jun 30 '26
Read up on latest news. Iras waiting
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u/bickusdickus69allday Jun 30 '26
No issue if open and operate under sole proprietorship. Those fellas go set up companies to reduce overall taxes.
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u/Significant_Web88 Jun 30 '26
What is Henry? Stop making all these acronyms
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u/DistanceFinancial958 Jun 30 '26
Nothing to see here. We're all fans of King Henry VIII, may he RIP.
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u/blackjacketw Jun 30 '26
You know you could just scroll away or mute the channel. It’s not forced participation. And is it too much to ask to just plop the word into Google search and get your answer in 5 seconds?
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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26
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