Not long ago, I happened to attend a small get together of my MBBS batch mates.
Seven out of 10 felt that they do not want their kids to choose this profession. This left me pondering over a bigger question. What has changed in the recent times that the so called earlier sought after “medical profession” seems to have lost its charm. Is it the availability of alternative and more rewarding alternate careers or the changing attitude of society at large?
The recent change in the attitude of the society is catastrophic. The doctor is perceived more as a ‘service provider’ rather than a dedicated professional. So, the medical practice has become more defensive.
Increasingly, I find myself watching and talking to doctors across two generations and various specialties these days. And increasingly, a sense of despair and disillusionment is writ large in their words.
Why India considers it a crime for doctors to earn money while closing their eyes when beurocrats, lawyers and uneducated politicians magically accumulate crores of rupees worth cash and properties!
This month, the Indian Medical Association confirmed that over 75% of doctors in India have faced some form of violence at the patient’s hands in India. There has been unprecedented violence against doctors. If hostile relatives take center stage, the poor doctor is a sitting duck. The violence and abuse against doctors, both verbal and physical, is illogical, and the malady is fast becoming pandemic. It isn’t easy being a doctor, it never has been. Today, the Indian Doctor is Isolated, Defensive & Vulnerable.
There are going to be doctors working beside you who will promote a medicine not necessarily because it is good, but because the pharmaceutical representative gives him a good incentive. And you will see that doctor taking home more than you do for doing the same work as you, and the devil on your shoulder will smile.
Today’s society is run by money, everybody is after money. The greed for money is overwhelming! Doctors are no exception. There is no denying that doctors are afflicted today by the same corrupt practices that have permeated every aspect of our public lives.
You will find doctors who are forced to do the extra procedure because, working in a private hospital, they need to answer to the heads above. They need to make a profit for their bosses.
Medicine was the most sought after profession and was the first choice of most brilliant students. Currently many prefer to opt for other streams like information technology, engineering, management courses etc. This is for several reasons.
The problem starts with the limited number of seats in medical schools, which is fiercely aggravated by the problem of reservation for various castes and communities, regions and quotas in both central and state government colleges, as imbibed in the constitution of India. Private ones are no exceptions. For example the unreserved category got 337 seats out of total 672 MBBS seats in seven AII India Medical Sciences institutions. In PGI 73 for unreserved out of 150 seats.
With regard to state government medical colleges, which come under various state governments, the reservation norms of respective states are applicable to under-graduate and post-graduate seats. These state medical colleges have 15 percent seats open to students from all over India, also known as All India Quota, for which similar rules of reservation to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other less developed castes apply.
India, being an ancient civilization with inhomogeneous, vibrant, pluralistic society with legacies of discrimination, has maze of laws. However, many of the present day government decisions are based on vote-bank politics. In fact all who have actually taken the benefit once, continue to take reserved seats based on their caste, in spite of improved economic status.
Reservation in specialty and subspecialty courses also leads to inhomogeneous clinical acumen among doctors. This positive discrimination does not stop till education in medical courses, but continues in job selection and promotion of medical teachers/consultants and faculties. This preferred treatment based on caste and not merit, encourages many of the meritorious students to pursue their future career outside India.
India is the only country where medical seats are officially sold, therefore, acknowledging the importance of money power over merit. In private medical colleges significant numbers of seats are paid seats at undergraduate and post graduate levels, which are beyond the payment capacity of a common person
For example the illegal capitation fee for one MBBS seat ranges from 50 lakh to one crore Indian rupees-74,800 to 149,600 US dollars, while the price of the radiology seat which was sold at one crore Indian rupees five years ago has now been sold at four crores (149,600 to 598,400 US dollars.
The work conditions for these highly trained young doctors in many public hospitals are quite miserable. Many public hospitals are underequipped with inadequate facilities. Majority of them are monuments of apathy and disease. In addition, the salary that they get does not cover their basic needs and is not as per the inflation.
Yes, being in this profession can be quite stressful and hard especially while announcing critical medical conditions and near death situation. But equally rewarding part of being a doctor is watching the relief, happiness on the faces of the patients and the attendants of a cured one.
My advice to an NRI doctor friend. Stay back for a few more years, earn some more, and come back to India as a businessman, India doesn’t need educated doctors, they are a dime a dozen. Plan some start-up, some small-scale industry, or a solar energy plant or any other idea. Venture into anything else but the healthcare sector. It never is a priority here. I saved a life, indeed.
But you, and only you, my friend, are the apostle of honesty and integrity, and the society expects exceptional moral and social behavior from you. You are god, so you can’t have the liberty to err. You could read the sarcasm in my tone, and laugh.
Undoubtedly, it is still the best profession to be able to give back to society.
