This article is reproduced with permission from Dr. Roshan Radhakrishnan – an Anaesthesiologist. Friend. Foodie. Occasionally published here and there. Aquarian. Winner of the “Best Creative Writing Blog in India” award. He blogs at http://www.godyears.net/
Why I will never allow my child to become a doctor in India
A pup was walking down the street when it came across a group of young boys. The leader of the group spotted the dog and pointed it out to his friends. Seeing the boys, the dog too wagged his tail and barked, looking forward to being petted and making new friends. However,even as the pup wagged his tail, one of the boys picked up a stone. The boy turned to the others and told them how dogs are bad because another dog had bitten his grandfather years ago. As he nodded, a second boy picked up another stone even as he spoke of the incessant barking of stray dogs in his neighbourhood at night, disturbing the sleep of his family. A third spoke of how dogs are bad because of religious reasons. The others realized the wisdom in their friends’ words and each picked up a stone, aware now that breeds like this could not be trusted. The pup stood where he was, confused as he watched the boys come closer to him.
By the time night had descended upon the land, the boys had dispersed and gone to their individual homes. There was a sense of accomplishment, having stopped a menace from entering their streets. Lying bloodied and brutalized, the pup that had wagged his tail in hope of giving and receiving love licked its wounds. It was too young to know that the physical wounds would heal in due time… but it was now old enough to have learned to distrust the species of stone throwers. The most selfless creature since time immemorial now knew to hate… because that was what it received for no fault of its own. For the crimes of others, it had paid with its body and soul.
That, in a nutshell, is the reason why I will never allow you, my child, to become a doctor in India.
Still confused, I guess? It is okay. Take a chair and sit down… this is going to take awhile.
Also note Top Medical Apps for Doctors
Increasingly, I find myself watching and talking to doctors across two generations and various specialties these days. And increasingly, that sense of despair and disillusionment is writ large in their words. They find themselves wondering where things went wrong even as they struggle to bring a smile on their faces. With 0.7 doctors per 1000 Indians, the doctor:patient ratio is far below that of other comparable countries like China (1.9), United Kingdom (2.8) and United States (2.5). Spain’s 4.9 seems like an absolute luxury in comparison, I must admit. What this means in layman’s terms is simply this – that you are always going to be swamped with patients beyond the logical human capacity in India.
Thou shalt sacrifice your time, parents, spouse and child.
Getting a 63 hour a week schedule (7 days x 9 hours) is a blessing and most of the young guns who join in fresh after post graduation know fully well that a 100 hour a week schedule is par for the course once you begin working. And sadly, this is advocated and in fact encouraged by most hospitals too – who wouldn’t want to have workers in a contract which states 8 hours a day and then get them to work 14, stating that ‘this is how it is for all doctors and besides, we are in the business of selfless service.’ You would never allow a taxi driver to drive you for 24 hours continuously but asking surgeons to do that every third day is fair game in India, apparently.
Wanting to do the alloted number of hours in your contract and then come home to your family is now frowned upon in our field… it implies weakness. Nay, it implies a a lack of professionalism.
Thou shalt sacrifice thy life dream.
This came in my Facebook timeline. It is actually quite accurate, when I think of it. It is a sacrifice that will take away your twenties and eat away at your thirties. You may enter the field bright-eyed at 18 but I must ask you – what happens if the dream to become a heart surgeon does not reach fruition? If for some reason, you find yourself unable to get the coveted seat or devote the fifteen odd years I assume it will take to become the junior most in your department, would you be happy with your life? Would you be able to live with losing the dream or would the disappointment eat you up from within?
Who cares for the doctor
A young surgeon working in one of the premier institutes in India spoke to me the other day. This was a doctor who was so passionate a year ago about becoming even better, working hard to get into a super specialty course. She had joined the hospital because of its awe-inspiring reputation across India, aware that the hard hours she put in would sharpen her skills and broaden her knowledge of the specialty. The woman I spoke to had lost that drive altogether.
Walking out of her home at 7 AM and returning home at 10 PM just to fall into bed and then wake up again at 5 in the morning to restart the cycle, she wondered what was the point of it all. She was losing touch with her loved ones and had become a zombie, lost between the politics within the hospital and a total lack of social life.
All this for a handsome salary of 50,000/- a month (in Mumbai) which she knew would not buy her two nights in the ICU of the very hospital she was working in. There would be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I wanted to tell her. She would earn more in her forties than her techie friends earned in their thirties, I could have consoled her. But I did not. Because I know how she feels.
Another doctor spoke out recently on a public forum, talking of his experience of doing six years of rural service for the government. When he finally left it two years ago, the man in his thirties had less than Rs 15,000/- in his bank balance with no extravagant purchases or trips to boast off. He needed his parents help at that age to still pay for his rent. It all came to a head when the guy at the shop recharging his mobile revealed how his monthly takeaway was more than the doctor’s… without any risk whatsoever.
His one plea to all the doctors listening? Do not be a sentimental fool and get blackmailed by the medical system to go work like he did… because nobody cares for your service at the end of the day. And I totally agree with him. If after more than a decade in the medical field, he cannot provide as much for his family as an mobile shop owner, then why did he need to go through so much of an effort at all? If India considers it a crime for doctors to earn money while closing their eyes when judges, lawyers and uneducated politicians magically accumulate crores, is it not the folly of the person aspiring to be a doctor? How dare he dream of providing for his family?
More statues, less healthcare is the solution
<- The very fact that our stats are comparablewith Nigeria speaks for itself.
The medical field we entered is not the one we are in today. Even the generations before us acknowledge this. And it is only getting worse.
For a field like ours in a country like ours which is overpopulated and has a major portion of that hovering below or around the poverty line, having the support of the government to ensure the benefits of health care reach everyone is vital to our success. They needed to make medicines more affordable at the very least. Sadly, rather than increase the amount, they decided to cut the budget allotted to health care by nearly 20 percent. Key sectors like HIV/AIDS lost funding rather than having it increased. This at a time when we spend a mere 1% as it is on public health care in India as opposed to 3% in China and 8% in United States. What can I say, my child? I guess India is healthier than those other poor nations, are we not?
Defensive medicine
I wish it were JUST about losing your family life, working twice the allotted hours and taking home the pitiably disproportionate salary though. But sadly, it isn’t even that anymore. Now, it is about getting home in one piece. From stopping patients from dying, the medical field is now being forced to worry about not being killed by the patients bystanders.
- The essence of being a doctor – to do the best we can to heal – is being taken away from us because now we need to be on the defensive. You remember that cute little thing we’ve been talking about called selfless social service? Guess what? It comes with riders, apparently.
- Selfless service means you do the extra hours because the hospital is perpetually understaffed.
- Selfless service means you take home a call centre worker’s salary because the healing you do is a service, remember?
- Selfless service means you adjust with the lack of drugs and instruments available and still save people because there is no other hospital nearby.
- But that line stops there. If the patient collapses while in your care, suddenly all these boundaries vanish.
You are then the monster that the public reads in the papers – the one who killed their loved one because of your greed to steal their money/harvest their organs/molest their ailing mother or child. Then the very same people who demanded that doctors take home a salary in 5 digits will have no problems in demanding compensation in six or seven digits. It does not matter if they are wrong… what is important is that by spoiling the doctor’s reputation, you succeed in blackmailing him or the hospital into a compromise. If every death inside a hospital were to be called a case of medical negligence, why would doctors admit the patient at all?
Are you willing to die for your profession?
The Indian Medical Association confirmed in May 2015 that over 75% of the doctors in India have faced some form of violence at the patient’s hands in India.
75%. This is after admitting that not all cases of violence get reported to them. There are even instances of doctors being actually killed for following the law. How do you explain that to his widowed wife? When was the last time you saw a software techie being killed off for not making an app properly? Still feel like using the ‘Selfless service’ card again? That’s a pretty thin card to keep playing while beating every 3 out of 4 doctors, don’t you think?
The recent verdict in the Joseph Eye Hospital case brought the reality of the Indian mindset home to many doctors. Handing down verdicts of imprisonment to 3 doctors for the loss of vision of 66 patients following an eye surgery camp, the judicial system showed an amazing lack of comprehension about what was going on. It does not need a rocket scientist to realize that a single trained doctor cannot make the same mistake 66 times in 66 different eyes on the same day. The obvious answer to such incidence of mass endophthalmitis is in the use of unsterile solutions used – the unsterile part being a fault of the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the solution.
There is no way for a doctor to know (without opening every individual bottle and testing them!) if the solution contains microscopic bacteria just as there is no way for you to know if there are any in your coffee before drinking it. And yet, to please a crowd baying for blood and money, even though it was obvious the fault lay with the tainted solution, the doctors were sent to prison. Sounds familiar, does it not? Remember the Chattisgarh sterilization deaths of 2014? Everyone knows the doctor’s name in that case. It was later proven that the fault was with the tainted medicines which were made in rodent infested factories. So tell me, what was the name of the pharmaceutical company and what action has been taken against it since then? You don’t know? How shocking!
It raised the obvious question to many doctors though. Why would we do such a service at all when we are being cheated? By doing a single private patient for Rs 60,000 (which is still cheaper than the Dhs 15,000/- charged abroad), the doctor can choose to use the best drugs from reliable companies instead of the generic substandard ones and make a hundred times more money doing one case while being totally ethical. Can you call them cheats then? No. Except that by doing so, we all know as doctors that nobody would then care for the treatment of the poor, if we give up on them too.
That is what being a doctor in India is all about, in the end.
- You are forced to go to the India that India forgot, the most rural crevices and cul-de-sacs where healthcare is actually needed.
- You are asked to bang on doors and seek out the ailing.
- You are asked to bring as many of them as you can back with you.
- And then you operate on them all for the handsome fees provided by the government (Rs 650/- is given to most hospitals, I hear, though I will gladly accept any revised figure too.)
- The government cuts its costs by making you do Rs 60,000 surgeries for 600, citing rural service (which naturally does not apply to engineers and lawyers – because these areas don’t need them at all.)
- The doctor carries the moral responsibility of helping as many patients as possible and so is asked to do work well beyond his physical and mental capacity.
- Generic pharmaceutical companies will pawn off their goods made in unsterile conditions at a lesser rate.
- When things go bad, the crowd will calmly ignore the government and pharmacy that cut corners for a profit and be at the doctor’s doorstep with stakes and pitchforks. And celebrities will be there to tut-tut on national television about how doctors are corrupt and cutting off organs for their own profits.
- The malaise within
Are all doctors good? My dear child, surely even you at this tender age cannot be so naive. Of course not. The one factor that holds good across all walks of humanity is our tendency to be a mix of good and evil. This extends across religions and Godmen to politicians and doctors and everything in between.
Before we were doctors, we were normal people too. And we have inculcated values from our family and peers for over two decades before we earned the right to wear that stethoscope. And whether we want to or not, that does show in the way we carry on. - So yes, there are going to be doctors working beside you who will promote a medicine not necessarily because it is good but because the pharmaceutical rep 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. He will positively grin, in fact, as you stare at the price of the new smartphone which is beyond your financial reach because social service and respect do not pay the bills.
- There will be those who need to make back the money spent on getting a seat… I hear certain post grad seats now go for 4 crores. Well, damned if I know why people would take it up when you could just as well earn more with the interest from the bank for that amount but hey… to each his own.
- 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 who shrug as they remind you that if the hospital runs into losses and shuts down, the loser is the patient himself. And when you think about it, they are right, are they not? Private hospitals (which still cater to a huge percentage of the population) need to make a profit to continue. If they shut down, the healthcare of the country would collapse in months simply because government hospitals would never be able to manage the volume. Again, the arrow of your moral compass will tremble as you grapple between the inner desire to treat people in pain and the requirement of forcing them away to a less safer center because they (like you!) cannot afford this hospital.
- Know that you are not God. ‘Feeling like a God’ when you see a patient open his eyes after a successful surgery is different from believing you are a God. It only need one mishap for such Gods to fall… and fall hard.
- Professional competition exists too, as though you didn’t have enough on your plate. Being competitive probably exists in every field but here the game is played with people’s lives. But when someone discredits you to sway the patient to leave you, you wonder what the point really is. Was it not supposed to be about healing people?
The imbecilic outsiders.
Case in point: When one state was unable to deal with the number of patients in the rural areas who needed health care, doctors from the neighbouring state stepped in and conducted camps there, helping the poor get the treatment they needed. How did the former state respond? By banning all the doctors from the other hospital for THE CRIME of providing health care to people in need. They could not provide it themselves but they would not allow the other state to lend a helping hand. This was the stand of the elected ministers in the end – we would rather our folk suffer than allow you to take credit for helping them when we cannot do it ourselves.
You have ministers running tobacco empires who head committees on health and undo all the work of doctors by claiming that tobacco is good for health.
You have self-proclaimed fakirs and saints telling to raise the population manifold at a time when we are stretched at the seams due to overpopulation.
You as a doctor are caught in the moral ineptitude of such politicians and film stars who never attend government hospitals themselves and yet decide how hospitals must be run.
This is what every young doctor in India today is struggling with – the disillusionment of it all.
We want to heal… we want that satisfaction of being able to save lives and see a cheerful smile on the face of someone who came to us in anguish. But not like this. Not dictated by the whims of businessmen who demand profits, not by the fear of being beaten up by relatives of patients who cannot accept death as an eventuality, not while worrying about how to pay the next electricity bill and not by losing our touch with everyone who matters to us just because a nation chooses not to strengthen its own healthcare system. The fear you feel as a doctor should be because you think you have missed a differential diagnosis when a patient comes to you, not that you will be beaten up if the patient’s condition worsens.
Depending on where you work, you will face some permutation or combination of the above ills of being a doctor in India.
And it will eat you from the inside. You will wonder how to strike the balance between being there for those you love personally and those who need you professionally. You will ask yourself how everyone demands you have a dozen degrees beyond your name and yet does not seem to think it necessary that you be paid equivalent to the effort you put in to reach here. You will see your peers do everything by the book and get beaten down by hospital politics or physically by patients and you will wonder – should I save the next critical patient who comes into the hospital or refer him elsewhere to save myself, knowing that the law has failed me.
And in that moment, you stop being the doctor you set out to be.
‘Selfless service’ does not require you to give up your soul and life.
<– Broken arm? Pfft… There’s still have one arm left!
P.S. Yes, That is me in case you are wondering!
People only use that term when they want doctors to go the extra mile. That selfless service tag stops when the time comes to pay the bill. When it is time to beat up a doctor or insult the entire fraternity based on one doctor or sometimes, pure ignorance.
You can choose to be selfless in so many ways – donate to the needy, adopt a child, participate actively in programs by worthy NGOs… heck, just by not harming or cheating anyone, you are basically being selfless in today’s world, I reckon. Why, you can run over innocent people sleeping on the pavement and still be called selfless, as long as you have money to donate in front of the media for a worthy cause, as I found out recently.
Understand one thing – ligating pulsating blood vessels is not a service. Restarting a heart is not a service. Suturing meticulously with threads thinner than the hair on your eyebrow is not a service. Identifying the extent of a tumour in the brain right down to the last millimeter while operating to remove it is not a service.
It is an art. It is a specialized skill. It is a test of your endurance because at the end of the 25th hour of straight duty, you better save that 20th patient on your operation table or else everything you have done before this does not matter. Above all else, it is a sacrifice.
As a father, you will find me as broad minded and tolerant as they get. You will have every opportunity to choose whether you want to retain your religion or change it based on what resonates within your mind. You will have every opportunity to choose the love of your life irrespective of caste, creed or even gender (though if you choose to go lesbian, may I just point out that Ellen Degeneres would be a lovely role model to emulate – kind hearted, hilariously, smart… plus Portia for a life partner!)
I will let you have every choice in life and I will be there to support you and guide you along the way. You can be a wildlife photographer trekking through the Amazons or dance the poles at Las Vegas. But I will never allow you to become a doctor in India. Because I did not raise my child for two decades just to watch her lose her sense of right and wrong, of humanity or worse, watch her die.
And I don’t mean just physically.
Authors note:
I have been conversing with a lot of doctors recently and the sound of disillusionment about the field has never been as loud as it is today. Even doctors of generations past and heads of departments acknowledge the shift, stating that they are happy that they are not starting off their careers in today’s India. One line which many of them said and one which I also agree with entirely is the basis of this article – “I will never allow my children to join this field.”
There is also an email sitting in my inbox asking me to sign and share a petition demanding that applications for licensed guns be fast tracked for doctors. I have read it and placed a ‘star’ across the mail. I do not intend to sign it because I don’t advocate guns as a rule… I see children cry everyday when I bring an intravenous cannula near their tiny arms. I do not wish to have them worry about the gun in the doctor’s pocket too. But I empathize with the sorrow of the doctors who made the petition. And I know one day, I too may find myself revisiting this petition should a calamity befall me. As its is, hospitals have started employing bouncers now.
I would love to hear from doctors here as well. Even if you disagree with my thoughts entirely, I do not mind. I just want to see how far the disillusionment lies and whether the “Hippocrates Oath” and “selfless service” tag are still as strong in your hearts today as it was the day you joined your medical college. Where do you think it is all going wrong in India?
Originally appeared at : http://www.godyears.net/2015/05/why-i-will-never-allow-my-child-to.htmlWritten by Dr. Roshan Radhakrishnan :BIO : http://www.godyears.net/p/who-am-i.html
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Billiantly written Sir……every word resonates the myriad thoughts and emotions that pass through my head day in and day out as I work towards securing a future that,like a mirage, disappears as soon as I think its in my reach…………Nevertheless, thankfully, I still haven’t reached the point where I regret choosing this profession…and I hope I never have to!
Very well written and every word written in a true sense.
Good on you, Doc.
Your argument has been very clearly laid out.
And you did not even have to point out the effect of capitation and dowry on a medical career.
I have been fortunate to have got everything that this wonderful career can offer one, yet I was jubilant when my sons made it clear that they wanted to pursue other dreams.
Too good really in near future no sane person will decide to become a doctor!!!!
An interesting read ! A comprehensive article about the challenges for doctors in the medical system in India today and why doctors in India prefer to leave for abroad.
#doctorsinIndia
http://johndasfundas.blogspot.in/2015/05/are-doctors-in-india-unhappy-with.html
Working as a house surgeon, on registers for 6 hours daily, plus off register16hrs daily, casualty24 hrs thrice weekly, without any stipend, not even a single rupee! Oops seems like I forgot math! Cost of living is so high and away from Home since years! My dad pays all the bills and requirements! And God knows how long will i be dependent On him.. even a cleaner and sweeper in my working hosp gets 5 k with all the benefits! Hell, we don’t even get casual leaves ! Haha
#Social service and respect don’t pay the bills.. #
Being a house surgeon is part of the course and you are being given training so you can’t be expect to be paid.
The entitlement attitude of doctors who expect to be paid before they even complete the course and graduate is sickening. You knew very well that it’s a part of the 5 and half year course. So why complain?
Not all house surgeons are students working for their MBBS degree. Many are post graduate residents who really slog for God knows how many hours a day….they do deserve to be paid Mr Raghav. From your comments I am reminded of all my patients I see day in day out….”Doctor reduce your surgeons fee, better still don’t take any fee at all but I want the costliest intraocular lens implanted in the eye, cost no bar”. When everybody is paid for every small service rendered doesnt a doctor deserve his/her due. Doctor why don’t you consult on Sundays as it is my day off” We also are humans with families, with needs why don’t you respect that
SoMe Of my comments make u sicken? lol,… always think before u open ur mouth..! I did engineering in one the top engg college for a year That’s is 2 semesters and even after the brilliant results at the end of second semester, I still chose to change to medicine cuz it was my dream to help this nation towards a better health..! I didn’t know I was heading towards the difficult days as I believed, if v like something, it shudnt be a burden on us…but fortunately I see that v are just exploited.. remember I cud have been earning a huge amt. By being an engineer, I still chose to help ppl like u who know no worth of our efforts!
5 and half yrs is not a big deal, we are ready to spend (and i did) around 10 yrs studying this profession, still i am expected to work in villages and not earn money, how do you justify that? and by the way what is your profession and how many years of rural or selfless service did you do Mr. raghav?
How is that a “selfless service” if you’re so selfishly bragging about it?
Buddy, revise your knowledge about house surgeon first; then comment.
There’s a rule for stipend, casual leave of 15 days and its a course of 4 and half year with one year of internship..
What do you do for living Ragav? Engineer? Banker? An MBA? We spend nearly 18 hours of a day either working in the hospital or improving the quality of service we can provide as an individual ( studying, improving knowledge and skills). All these things don’t come for free. An engineers starts earning as soon as he is 23 or 24. An MBA / CA starts earning as soon as they are 25. We doctors? We are dependent on our parents at 30! Life never picks up. Do you know now why doctors in India think about leaving the country at the earliest available opportunity? I am very proud to say that I am one of them.
I spent 6 years doing MBBS in Bangalore. I did post graduation in Mumbai for 3 years. By the age of 30, I had 3 post graduate qualifications ( MD, DNB and fellowship) but struggling to make the ends meet. I was working for a hi-fi corporate heart surgery hospital in Bangalore that paid pittance to its doctors. I left the country when I was 33.now, I am 38 and have my own house, BMW, a very very happy family, peace of mind and well protected future. I miss my mother and my motherland everyday but that doesn’t fill my or my family’s stomach. So, get real. Doctors are not saints also doctors are not for free.
My late father died couple of years ago, of complications related to diabetes. I personally conduct FREE diabetes camp in my village on his birthday, bringing expertise from Bangalore and Mumbai to a rural settings. The only difference is the doctors are paid handsomely for their one day service while the patients pay nothing!!!
i started earning 35k just after completing MBBS at 24 . And was also studying for PG while working. Many states have high-paying rural jobs – and they are very light job. Some even dont go to their jobs ( hardly one visit in 15 days ) and they are getting 40-50K per month ! if earning money is only your soul goal of life , start doing a business. There are many many oppurtunities like amazon business , where you can earn lacks of ruppes per month sitting at home only. You have to figure out WHAT INTERESTS YOU IN YOUR LIFE , WHAT YOU LIKE? if you love being doctor , helping the needy , the money thing will get absorbed somewhere which you wont even feel it . ( considering you are getting enough for living and satisfying your needs )
Engineers, like me, do paid internships before graduation as part of our course. Nobody calls them entitled. More often that not people tell them to go for higher and higher paid internships. If doctors demand the same I don’t see where they are showing an entitlement attitude. They are not asking for freebies, only expecting to get paid when they do the work…
As part of training, we shouldn’t get paid but if we r made to do literal manual labour, we should get just compensation. it is fair to expect compensation during internship. A stipend is expected to be paid. On the same argument, it could be asked why post graduates need a stipend as they r also learning during the course. The incredulity of such a statement shows your lack of knowledge of the working of doctors
Yes true ur words are. But at the same time it’s hilarious that,I can’t explain the actual scenarios that go On in private colleges! V are made to work like donkeys with fake cases and so many such stuffs… V are not being trained for treating better.. V are jus made to do a respectable clerical work here… The college reduces staff cuz anyway v doing it for free so y not exploit them!. ! N u know wad it’s easy to guide others to go n complain.. But wad to do if the entire system is corrupt.. ! Haha u say As house surgeon , I need to learn..?? Wad abt the clerical job I do here.. I single handed have to do a job of a nurse, a doctor, a clerk, a fake case completing machine.. I even forgot I have hands lately… I have just become a robot.. ! So wud u or others I meet in a daily basis give stuffs for free jus cuz I do a social service? no right.. ? And u know wad, am doing all my best to learn more n get a PG seat, but sounds so scary.. I may have to be sitting in home for the next few years to study.. ! Don’t u think I shud atleast earn a bit to be able to purchase thE Pg books required.. !?? Well if u ain’t a doctor, u will never get it! pshhh hate myself for even trying to convey a msg!
I don’t know where you work. But I just completed my house surgency and we were paid 15000 per month as house surgeons. Its really sad to hear that you are not paid for your work. What you said is true, and I agree to every word. I also feel sad for the patients because even in a tertiary level causality the maximum care they get is from a senior post graduate. Remember these are cases reffered from outside by senior doctors.
mr. Raghav its not just training..
the entire hospital works on us. i have been away from my family for around 10 yrs, i m in my “training phase`while everyone celebrates festivals and social gatherings at their home, i am working, while others enjoy weekends i am working, while others sleep i am on duty 24 hrs a day 365 days and i dont even get paid at all considering my fees,
Just give me one good reason why i should be doing selfless service.
This has to be only in India where house surgeons aren’t paid… Service of any kind in this modern day is not free. You are standing and working… not sitting on a chair and slacking off and it has to be awarded in the form of money. If you cannot see, as a doctor, the pain behind the endless UNPAID hours then you’re no different from a medical text book.
I request people to respect doctors and forgive them for there small mistaks as they are also HUMANBEING & not GOD
and would also request Dr to treat patients at reasonable rates & do not treat them as money minting machine
Is the cheating shown in the private hospital sector in the “Gabbar is Back” movie possible in the real world?
Let me state outright that big hospitals do have unethical ways of making money. I’ll get back to how again. The main question from what I see in this question and its details is, whether it is possible for hospitals to admit a dead patient and make m…
A very articulate article that sums up the situation of doctors in Pakistan. We’ve been fighting for a system that supports the doctors instead of exploiting them for over a decade, and it helps to know that there are others who feel it is justified. There was once respect and nobility attached to the profession if not money but by asking fr what is rightfully ours has done massive damage to that repute. We are not given the same compassion that is expected of us…please be warned.
Sir,
A very well written article.
I’m a 2nd year MBBS student and this scenario is already scaring me.
Good article. Yet it’s quite naturally and obviously biased in favour of doctors. The opposite is also equally true and cruel. Fleecing poor patients, refusing to admit critically wounded patients for their inability to deposit (huge) sums, conducting surgeries when not required only because the OT is vacant, refusing to discharge for not settling the hospital bills, and retaining dead bodies for days together in the guise of trying to recover pulse (though knowing the fact of death) only to inflate the bill (to keep the hospital treasurer happy) and so on. Some of these may be exaggerated, yet they may not be exaggeration of falsehood. Every profession is a coin having two faces. It’s a toss between the two.
The show must go on!
the situation being talked about above in details mainly refers to government services and the situation of doctors working in corporate sectors. and what u r talking about is the administration of corporate sector. whatever u r saying is true, but guess u can never understand whatever is being said here because u ll never be on the edge of bieng manhandled by a patients relatives, its us who have to tread cautiously forever. LIVING ON THE EDGE!!
Your article is very astute & very much sums up what most doctors feel. I was a very good student all my life, but after my MBBS, due to marriage & familial compulsions could not do my post graduation, I got a government job, but had to leave that too for my children. Your comment about ” the dream” struck a cord, as even at the age of 45 , I am still dreaming. Last year I did a fellowship which was equivalent to a PG course, & after coming out first in the exam, my confidence was revived. I again thought of appearing for the PG entrance exam,& few people have been encouraging me too, bit the disillusionment & the worthlessness of it all is stopping me from going that extra mile. What is the point? I am earning a decent sum now through my private practice, maybe I shall double the amount if I complete my PG, but is it worth it? Doctors in India don’t feel safe, don’t get any respect & are totally disillusioned with the society & the system as a whole. I don’t know if I will ever be able to fulfill my dream, but one thing is for sure, I will never let my children even dream of becoming a doctor!!!
LET NOBLE SOULS COME TO THIS PROFFESSION TO CLEANSE THE FILTH THIS GENRATION PRODUCED IN THIS FIELD
Hi sir,
Very very well written article. I can see that you have thought through all this at great length. And the organisation of your thoughts in marvellous.
I am a MBBS graduate from one of the top institutes in Delhi and currently pursuing residency in the US. My parents are both physicians and they have many physician friends. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the same things from them. My parents repeatedly try to convince me that India may not be a great place to practice medicine after my MD. I know exactly how they feel having been through many of the situations you have described.
However, I struggle to find the work satisfaction and the personal life I am looking for in the states. The training is excellent without doubt, however practicing medicine here comes with its own challenges I feel. Or may be the grass is always greener on other side. However I constantly feel that now that I have this opportunity to learn and train so well it would be good to return to India and despite all the challenges try to do my share and try to make what little difference I can. I guess my thoughts may be laced with the rosy naive ideology of selfless service that you describe. But is it truly impossible I wonder? Is every physician in India dissatisfied and unhappy? I would hope not.
Secondly, yes, I agree that this our struggle, and while the goverment and even the common man may not seem be on our side, we need to continue to stick together and support each other. It is a major problem. However I do not think the solution can be for all Indian physicians to go abroad to practice or for all Indian kids to stop pursuing a career in medicine. The leadership of various medical associations need to step up and take a strong stand.
I may be in for a huge shock if and when I start my practice in India but for now I seem to hold on my idealistic thinking.
Dear madam ISHA,
I dont who u r ….
But just when i was randomly going across these comments and happened to read yours too… And felt a compulsive urge to reply to you….in the process if something i say can convince you and throw light on your decision then i will have the satisfaction of saving somebodys life….
I will list out the problems and i will not exaggerate even 1%
1. From patients
Around 10 % are still naive and trustworthy and I still get thanks and tears warm send offs…
Around 70 % are still harsh in their approach , they demand instant treatment and unrealistic expectations and half knowledge…they just want us to do as they say
” doc jus give me an injection , dont give tablets they are waste time ”
” the other doc gave me red color tab and you r giving me white color ,are u sure”
” dont give high dose like 500mg (paracetamol and amox)”
And if we r going to operate you have to explain the procedure word by word to atlest 8 to 9 attenders again and again apart from close relatives like father ,mother , husband , wife etc.
Still after surgery some new relative comes and asks ” sir how come you did not tell me, and why did not do the latest advanced procedure..( totally unrelated) And create confusion and doubt in every ones mind.
Try explaining… you would prefer to hang yourself.
I could go on…
There are a remaining 20% who will abuse you on your face which includes 5-6 % who will not hesitate to rough you up…..happens all the time… Watch some videos in you tube( pune allahabad incidents) i lost a few nights sleep and next day decided to take a few days off
2 . problem From society :they not only expect us to do to service but threaten us at the slightest pretext… In the name of political , religious and social outfits they just barge in and threaten us … With a ” dare me ” attitude… And if we reply in equal measure they say ” you are a doc and how can u behave like this” so they just want us to take everything jus lying…
Motives being MONEY and POLITICAL MILEAGE..
But after all the commotion settles I personally go to the patient or his close ones… And ask why r u doing this? They just reply ” doc trust me i dont know the guys who created the ruckus and i dont know what happened” ? My head starts turning on my neck
3: problem from hospitals: a lot of private hospitals are going corporate and want big bucks , poor docs have no say in anything and is constantly at their mercy.
Either u do what they say and if u refuse , then they will easily find people who will be willing to oblige (our own colleagues)
4. problem from govt.: Many , but i feel they r pressed by the sheer numbers (populatio)and are always in a corner to please somebody.
5. From our collegues :
Their attitude
” didnt happen to me”
” i am busy ”
” it will spoil my reputation if i participate in strike”
” it will affect my practise and income”
” okay i will psy the pt and compensate and solve amicably”
LAST OF ALL THE FAMOUS
” He deserved it… ( about a fellow colleague”
And last but not the least
Telling the pt
” oh why did u go to him , this is wrong medicine / surgery , you should have come to me i would done it cheaper and better.”
Goes on Dr Isha. pls think a thousand times before you decide… Not that u will waste your time or money BUT BECAUSE IT CUTS A GASH DEEP IN YOUR SOUL AND SCARS YOU FOR LIFE AND MAKES YOU ASK “why the hell did i become a DOCTOR” AND INTURN MAKES U DECIDE ” I WILL NEVER WANT MY CHILD TO BE A DOCTOR”
Stay put, Isha. I understand your feelings, but for your own good, remain where you are. Trust me nobody cares about us.
Dr Isha, Mam I fully agree with you. This is not the story of all the doctors in India. We as patients (at least I and my family), worship you all. We also are ready to pay the community with money and due respect. The common man does but may be some do not. Plus some Doctors themselves are also responsible for spoiling the profession by creating a network and looting patients even poor ones. This is a dilemma situation which can be argued both ways . but in my view, I believe Doctor’s are next to gods who are appointed by him to take care of the people they come in touch with. .
Well said.medical fraternity needs this optimistic attitude
So brutally honest.. Reading this was heartbreaking but yet could relate so well to the soul of this article.
U shed crocodile tears for working long hours due to scarcity of doctors. But ur own IMA to protect business interest of medical mafia produced ill trained doctors project as if there is no shortage of doctors. Ur emotions do not emote then?
In India people don’t understand the the sacrifice a doctor do to become a doctor. Doctors are struggling a lot because the India lacs the proper system. In india every thing will be resolved if only 2 things are being insured :
1. To not allow any quacks or non allopathic doctors to practice allopathic medicine
2. To disallow selling of any medicine without the doctor perscription strictly.
Thats all. If this is insured like any systemized contries the doctors will get the right pay and respect automatically. No need for anything else.
The doctor population ratio is very low by statistics but we should not forget that this statistics never consider the quacks practice and the practice which goes over the counter.
THEN WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF ALOPATHIC NEEDS OF PEOPLE. MEDICAL MAFIA LORD KETAN DOESNT WANT TO PRODUSE ENOUGH ALOPATHS TO TAKE CARE OF RURAL HEALTH CARE & UR PADMA SHREES & PADMA BHUSANS R BUSY PROJECTING AS IF RURAL PEOPLE FIRST NEED SPECIALISTS EVEN BEFORE NATION COULD AFFORD A BASIC ALOPATHIC RURAL DOCTOR FOR THEM
Tried so hard got so far but in the end it doesn’t even matter….
It’s jus frustrating life of the doctors, I prepared for 2yrs for getting into gud branch n taut end of all difficulty…. And here is small comparisons with fellows of other professions
They party hard I work hard
They roam countries I go to small towns
They travel in posh cars I use city bus
They have iPhone 6 I have redmi 1s
They plan apartments I still reside in rented house
They party in star hotels I go to hospital canteen
Sacrificed so many things n still burning,
But one smile n thanks from patient makes me forget everything n will be in cloud 9
Respect doctors, we r there to help as much as possible, we never plan to kill…
Very true .”One smile and thank you from the patient and we are on cloud nine”. I guess this weak spot of doctors has been exploited time and again and we still don’t learn. Good to see the outpouring of hardships faced by us doctors. But you know what nobody cares a damn. Patients feel I have paid his fees I owe him nothing. I am pained by the atrocious comments posted by some guys here. Wish and pray their children become doctors. Only then they can feel the pain what we are experiencing. If we start charging like our counterparts in developed countries then these people will realise. I am not belittling any profession but only saying give us our due credit for the service we render in spite of the hardships we face .
Amazing blog sir… I donot know what i am actually feeling right now… M a final year medical student who was so foolish to give up her dream to b an architect just so i could fulfill my Dad’s dream to see his daughter take aftr him as a doctor. But d way things are turning out to be, i dont think i want to continue being a doctor at all… May b i shall soon even consider changing my field of work from treating patients to doing something not even distantly related to this profession full of crap…aftr ol i donot intend to be killed or worse, jailed, for not being wrong.
Thanks…for writing this stunnibg piece of article. Yes it was pretty long…but d list of pains this fraternity is going through isnt getting any shorter eithr. Right?
Honestly, I wish i had a dad like you…i wish someone pushd me into a dark cell, tied me up head-to-toe, lockd me up n somehow stoppd me from attending the counselling session, or rather call it d glorified death of all my dreams.
Thanks.
With regard,
Pranami Kashyap
Beautifully written.
In 2001 when I completed MBBS and got married. Both me and my husband were studying for PG exams. I started my house job and got paid a salary of Rs. 9000 ( some of my friends got Rs. 2000). I still remember after the hard 24 hour shifts, I had to work so hard at home cleaning, cooking, etc. as I could barely afford the rent for my studio flat!
I then left the country, and feel that in developed countries, doctors can truly do the ‘selfless’ work they set out to do without fears for their security, and the need to resort to unethical means. Even if there is a medical error- it is scrutinised heavily, and it is the hospital that pays out, not the doctor personally.
The main issue in India is that the Govt. needs to spend a larger proportion of the GDP on health if true improvements are to take place. A robust security system has to be in place in all hospitals/ proper claim system for the patient to access if they suspect medical negligence. Surely, sometimes, the patients recourse to violence when they suspect foul play and know that this will not be transparently discussed with them?
Totally agree with the author.
Dr. Roshan
I commend you for writing that passionate and heartbreaking perspective on what Doctor’s go through in India. We live in Australia and I have a daughter who grew up, studied and became a Doctor here. While the system here is honest and does not indulge in rort and manipulation, either by the Government or the industry, life for Doctors is similar to that in India. They toil tirelessly without proper food and sleep for 70-80 hours a week. Life becomes easier when they become Consultants in their 40’s. Having a Doctor in my family has now helped us see what you do for humanity and I salute you and your profession. May your tribe grow and find the strength to care for the rest of us thankless people, cause without you we will be pushing daisies.
I can only say this to encourage Doctors across the world; you are the most respected profession anywhere on this planet and you should be proud.
Have a great day.
Regards
Venki
I am an engineering graduate planning to pursue medicine abroad as I really hate engineering and have a passion to study medicine even though I will be 27-28 years old when I finish my mbbs.
1.Now that said, most doctors in India think they are entitled and think too great of themselves. Why does every doctor think that he/she should pursue MD then DM and then Mch.? To practice, MBBS would be enough or at the maximum, an MD degree would do. People want to do DM and then Mch simply to earn more money. Why blame the system for your greed? If that the case every engineer also has to study equal amount of time finishing Be, then an MS and then PhD.
2.Why does every doctor in India think that only their profession involves long hours and a lot of doctors I have spoken say that they have a lot of tension. Seriously, to know of real meaning of tension, try getting a IT job or a corporate marketing job and you will know what long hours mean.
3. I have parents working in the pharma industry and the Indian pharma industry is known for its quality globally. You can’t blame the pharma industry when 90% of doctors are corrupt and their rightful place is prison. The majority of the medicine(50-60%)of MRP goes to commissions for doctors and add to that foreign vacations.
4. Doctors are supposed to write medicines and not brands. Why are doctors making brand choices on behalf of patients? The pharmacy is supposed to give choices based on the customer’s preferences and as a business to make profit. It seems that doctors want to get a share of every source of profit.
Continued
5.And let’s not forget the number of botched surgeries and deaths caused by pure negligence. Doctors in India get away with it due to absence of strong laws. The two cases you have mentioned above are anomalies because they happened in government hospitals. The poor quality medicines used in government hospitals are because of corrupt senior doctors who pocket a big share. What about negligence in private hospitals? Hardly 1%of medical negligence cases end in prosecution.
6. The quality of graduates from private medical colleges especially deemed Universities is poor. Why is there no entry exam like there is for foreign graduates to filter out people with poor skills posing a danger to patients.?
7.Indian doctors force their opinions and don’t give choices to patients. I have personally observed this abroad where doctors give you choices. This is due sheer arrogance. People in other professions also have a brain and can make their choices if they are clearly explained about the different procedures.
Let’s take your points one by one:
1. People cherish their dream of becoming a cardiologist or neurosurgeon which requires a DM or MCh. Plus, with an MD qualification, they can treat people better, I.e. with more expertise. People are more comfortable consulting a specialist than a general practisioner.
2. An it job may demand long hours but not 36 hour duties which doctors do. Also, doctors deal with lives not machines making the stress much more, its not even something to compare.
3. There are corrupt people everywhere pharma industry included. How can the doctors possibly know where the medicine has been made? With reference to those particular incidents in the article, the author is right. The doctors went with a good intention, it was the contaminated medicines that cause the catastrophe. This has been proved and accepted.
4. Proscriptions at the bottom have a note saying ‘pharmacy may dispense the same medicine equivalent by another company.’ Sometimes, by experience doctors know which company is better, its no about cut backs from the company.
5. The doctors do explain all the options to patients and give their expert opinion on which is the best. Nothing is done without patient’s consent: be it implied or written consent.
That being said, I’m glad you are passionate about becoming a doctor and I wish you all the best. Your opinion might change once you are on the other side of the discussion.
Well Raghav.
1.May i dare to ask you how many years after engineering you have spent in rural postings.
How many rural canals,bridges,public toilets or roads u have helped built ??
2. We go for higher studies to sharpen our skills..and yes to earn more..Is it a crime to earn more ??.. or only elite IIT ians have this right ??
3. I would also like you to produce a clarification regarding 50 percent concession to doctors from pharma companies..Just in case u dont know doctors don’t manufacture medicines so we are least bother for its sale too..Its your Dads pharma companies who are greedy and offering 50 per cent concessions to rocket the sales..
Why dont you ask your dad why didnt he encourage you to be a pharmacist ??..Hope u might get some real answers then..
Regards
On behalf of honest medical professionals.
.
Satyamev Jayate-brainwashed person spotted.
I lost my cool when you said ‘90% of doctors are corrupt’. Just don’t show your face in a hospital, then, stick to the bullshit ayurvedas. Interesting to see the public’s attitude towards doctors.
I wud like to ask how often have u gone personally to an MBBS general practitioner and how often do u go to a specialist or demand a super specialist? How often do u go to a govt hospital for treatment and how often to a private one? How often do u use generic medicines and how often do u use branded medicines? Put urself in each of these situations and then comment..some of us do specialisation coz tht is a dream..same as an B.Tech aspirant to get into IIT and do computer engineering..if basics is all u need, why not to an IT diploma itself and leave it at tht?
Negligence is wilful, but put urself at the end of a 24 hr Emergency every alternate day in a govt hospital catering to a minimum of 200 patients a day singlehandedly..at the end of it, can u honestly claim to not be sleep deprived and be at ur best? Put urself in the place of a surgeon at 4 am trying to save a patient of severe head injury and lose him,not due to “negligence” but to the fact tht he was beyond human help..unless u believe like another “enlightened” soul on another forum tht doctors shud work on getting people back from the dead..wen ur computer motherboard conks off u can replace it..human body dsnt have tht provision..
if i advise investigations am corrupt, if i dnt am not doing my best..there is no way to win with u guys, is there?
Selfless service is in context of helping people get healthy, live fruitful lives, not starve myself and my family to death by doing free service..does the govt give me subsidies coz am a doctor? Do my Bills get paid by the taxpayers? No, i am doing my job and i expect to be paid for it..we are neither Gods, nor Saints…we provide a service and of course deserve renumeration..how many engineers and management professionals do rural service? Compare the number of IITS and IIMS with AIIMS and tell me honestly, does the govt pay more in gross for medical education or technological? Then why are we alone expected to pay our dues? Corruption exists in every profession..please dnt insult our intelligence by claiming tht it is sitting put only in ours.. do engineers get beaten up if a building falls? If an app malfunctions? If an HR administrator is not doing his job? Then why us?
And lastly abt corporate hospitals, do u honestly believe the high consultation fee goes to the doctor? Are u really tht naive? wake up and smell the coffee, its the administration of a hospital, who decides the fee and pockets it..the doctor is a salaried employee!!
1. That is a very stupid assumption to make. You should stay in engineering. Most of us want to do and MCH or a DM(clearly you don’t know the difference) beyond our post graduations because we love the science, because we want to learn something better, because I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO A HEART TRANSPLANT one day. For that I am willing to invest 10 years of my life. If making money were my ONLY ambition in life, I would do an MBBS, go to a sub-urban area, see 300 patients a day and roll in riches. I will not do that. I will spend years in India’s poorly staffed, barely up-to-date Operation theatres and learn the craft.
2. Are you seriously comparing the tension and the hours? Passing the MBBS exams are easy, I won’t go into that. Remember your JEEs? Imagine two bigger and worse exams. I have to pass all of them before I can finish my MCh. And you will not understand tension unless you have to treat a rapidly deteriorating patient of Tension Pneumothorax in a filthy, understaffed Casualty block in a government hospital. What’s the worst that can happen to an IT? He loses his job. To me? The patient loses his life which crushes me. THEN, I lose my Job, and probably my life too cause this is India.
3. Mother of Blanket Assumption. Seriously, don’t be a doctor with that IQ. You realise that 90% of our population are treated at Medical Colleges where we provide the service for free? And the Chattisgarh incident was proven to have been caused by contaminated saline solution? Simply because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a doctor cannot kill 66 patients doing the same surgery? Or is saline solution not made by those globally renowned pharma companies of India?
4. Refer to point 3. Go to any government college. That’s where the real work is being done. Generic names only.
5. Finally, the only correct thing you managed to say here. Yes, we need laws to punish medical negligence. That is true. Doctors get away with more than they should. BUT. Just like in every profession, there’s good and there’s bad. For every corrupt, inept doctor there are atleast 5 selfless brilliant ones.
6. Same with reservation. These are things beyond our control but hardly other doctor’s fault. Might I suggest you consider taking it up with people in a position to effect a change? The government perhaps?
7. Yes, we often have to. Come to my hospital and observe how we work in our Out patient departments. Poor, illiterate people come to us in hundreds. 5 hours to see 300 patients. We often have a low tolerance for bullshit and cannot practice ideal bedside manner like we are supposed to. But we have to weigh it against nor treating the hundreds standing outside, waiting for their consultation.
God bless you and preserve your innocence!
Your whole comment reflects how ill-read ill-informed you are, and how undeserving to get a medical seat on your own merit, and finally how unworthy to be a doctor. neither do you love your subject nor do you have respect for what you want to pursue. so, why pursue medicine at all? do you wanna be among the corrupt doctors as well 😛
now coming to each of your points ,one by one,
1. you wouldnt know that we are FORCED by the situation in India to try and do MD,DM,MCh. You people finish your 4 years of casual BTech and get good, sometimes excellent jobs with average salary of 6 lacs per year. We just get kicked out of college after graduation. without MD no patient will approach you even in smallest towns.
2. Dont you dare compare our “tension” with the engineers or marketing professionals’. They can at best lose some money…some sleep..get some scolding..demotion….maximum lose their job. If we screw up, we lose a patients LIFE…and sometimes our registration which turns a doctor into a mere school-pass-out. And more importantly you get PAID to work for long ours, we get paid in peanuts. u have AC offices, office cars, health benefits…we have no such things. One of my daughters is an MBA from IIMC and another a doctor pursuing MD, so i know both scenarios very well.
3. 90% doctors are corrupt. Now that is the most laughable statistics, did our parents tell you that? a countries healthcare would collapse if it was so. how many doctors do you know personally? I agree there must be 10-20% corrupt doctors..as there are corrupt engineers and lawyers and bankers and professors…And as far as pharma industry is concerned they will do anything for their business. Do you know that doctors pay bills at their clinics at trade slabs? Do you know we fall under Consumer Protection Act? though i deeply condemn business minded practice.. if the government extorts doctors labelling their service as TRADE.. why shouldnt they do some business?
4. You are as naive as a kindergarten kid if you think a specific medicine made by all different brands are all SAME IN EVERY RESPECT.. theres almost nil quality control of medicines in INDIA due to government corruption. if i prescribe a generic name of medicine the shopkeeper will give you the cheapest locally made medicine from which THEY will get commission, because a shopkeeper will never have a regard for patients life. read news please.Recently a gynaecologist had been arrested for negligence as after sterilisation operations in a camp many women died. Later it was found that was due to poor quality antibiotics…that the govt supplied. he was released with all respect but it was a huge blow to hisreputation and practice. My daughter as an intern has seen cases where a patient in surgery woke up partially due to bad quality medicine bought from ‘cheap medicine store’ of government…. I earnestly support writing generic name instead of brand name.. bbut then, when our country is like UK,USA where there is strict uniformity of drug production and stringent quality control rules.
Next time, read and research before posting false biased comments, and i sincerely hope, you never become a doctor, because with such clouded vision and blunt mind, you can hardly serve a profession as noble as this.
Hello, Mr. Raghav. Let me congratulate you for deciding to select MBBS even after you have finished engineering. Coming back to the questions you have asked regarding the above post, let me as a medical graduate and also a member of my family filled with Doctors.
A1) There is a valid reason why we are selecting to do Post-Graduate courses even after we get our MBBS certification. Just imagine starting up a practice in a big city, or instance, say even a town. Keeping your name on the board outside with only a MBBS tag beside it is not going to do you any good, unless you are a generation-old well known doctor of the locality. New doctors don’t stand a chance with just MBBS. The society expects us to be having a PG degree and MBBS is quite frankly for them, useless or incomplete. (actual words from countless patients I have seen.).
A2) Comparing IT and corporate jobs with the job of a doctor is a very wrong thing to do. What if you are in a IT job and you happen to do a mistake such as error in executing a protocol or meeting up with a deadline? The Boss is going to have a field day with you or the worst possible scenario is you getting fired. If Doctors commit a slight mistake or even if others ‘suspect’ of doctors committing a mistake, they lose their job, they get attacked by angry naive relatives, face legal action, get airtime on media branding them as a ‘evil’ ‘greedy’ ‘money-minded’ doctors and get their licenses suspended permanently.(which they have worked hard for more than 10 years to get). And finally end up penniless by paying the legal compensation and have absolutely nothing to support their families. As you will be joining Medicine abroad, I regret that you will not deal the actual problems that other members of medical fraternity face in India. Imagine standing in the ICU with 10 patients on life-support and manning them continuously for 36 hours as the duty doctor. There are actual ‘lives’ in your hand.
A3) 90% of Doctors are corrupt? Seriously? From where have you obtained this statistic? And who is asking the Pharma companies to offer doctors free goodies? Any respectable doctor would not ask or demand anything from the Pharma companies. I agree completely they may choose to accept whatever the companies provide,be it a pen or a discount in vacation but that doesn’t mean doctors expects those goodies whenever a Pharma Rep walks in. Let me recall, isn’t it the reps who request and plead the doctors to ‘prescribe’ only their product to the patients? I pray that you will realize this once you are in this profession.
A4) Its frankly much easier writing the brand name than the actual chemical composition. Try writing Diethylcarbemazepine for a prescription in a crowded OPD with more than 50 patients who are losing their patience. (But I do agree there are a few Doctors who have certain brand preferences in order to receive goodies from the Pharm companies. Only a ‘few’, not 90% of them. Its like insulting every doctor out there.)
A5)Strong laws? Getting away from botched surgeries? Are you kidding me? Medical negligence directly ends up with your license getting suspended. There are absolutely no laws present to protect the interests of the doctor. If you are willing to please go ahead and check the Constitution and the Indian Penal Code yourself. You yourself mentioned all Indian Pharm companies manufacture good medicines, then what is with the ‘poor quality’ medicines you have mentioned? Have you even read the above post? Are you blaming the doctors for the negligence shown by the government towards healthcare? Again with the 1% statistic? Where do you get them? Can you provide a valid resource. (not a media article, I mean a Valid Resource)
A6) We are already having enough license clearing exams as it is and you want one more additional test for the deemed ones and private medical colleges? For your information all the tests held in Pvt. colleges are under the direct supervision of the governing university of that area in case it isn’t a deemed one. And for the deemed colleges Govt. of India requires External examiners to conduct the practicals. No ifs and buts on that. The main MBBS exam itself is supposed to filter out the poor and unskilled medicos you have mentioned. And in addition to that you wanting another one just because you ‘feel’ that there are still untrained delegates is going to be useless.
A7) To patients who are uneducated, naive and illiterate, doctors have very little choice, but not to force their treatment choice but to strongly support their choice. These people believe more in quacks and black magic practitioners than actual doctors, and the patients have all the right to refuse the treatment option given. People in other professions cannot differentiate the difference between excising a tumour in grade iv gliobastoma vs Radiation chemotherapy even though Doctors try their best in explaining the differences and what they should choose based on their years of experience. I even believe the late Steve Jobs, Founder and CEO of Apple relied on alternative medicine instead of going for actual treatment for a treatable cancer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Health_issues
So according to you Steve Jobs has no brain?
So reading all the above answers I hope you sit down and think for some time and try to change your perspective regarding the situation in India.
Srry dear ur all wrong 40-50%of their profit goes to the cmpany rest 10% to doctors;doing mbbs is nthing these days u cnt practise properly even in villages nd abt mdms its not that easy 90000doctors sitting for 5000 out of which 2500 nonclinical nd other reservations ie sc st obc, it takes an year extra or wo to get sch seat after studying day n night nd the result u get in jr1 ship is working 120 hrs a week;mind u core med brchs r that mch hectic thats why radiodiagn nd derma hve bcme top brchs,then simply md med or ms surg u r nthing to practise even in a tier two city so dear its better u keep to engineerin lest u will come out as a full doc in late thirties!!
Do you have to ‘allow’ your child to be a doctor? Can’t he make his own decision?
I do have to educate my child to take the right decision..
If he/she can pay for their own fees 😛
Excellent article.ther should be strong law protecting doctors in every aspect.doctors pay is horrible with long working hours in pathetic conditions most of d times.
there should b stronger laws against corruption commission kick backs in health care too. isnt it????
I saw the video clip where a superspecialist was beaten up by goons just like a dog. What surprised me was that no one came to his rescue. Also a nurse just walked past. The doctor in question made no attempt to defend himself except pleading for mercy with his attackers. This doctor would/could have lost his life and in vain. It would have been a collosal loss to the nation. Just calculate in money terms (forget passion, dedication etc) how much the nation would or could have lost and may have lost if he is crippled. My friends do defend yourselves with whatever means avaiable and take up in your hands anything avaiable including a chair and fight back. You are not some mother theresa! When I was doing casualty duty at jnmc, amu, I was ruffened up by some hooligans. When i wrote a complaint to the superintendent, he told me something which I shall remember for rest of my life and endevour to follow to this day. He said, why did i not defend myself? I used to exercise and do weight lifting in those student days. I replied, sir, I am a doctor. He said, yes for patients who respect you as a doctor not those hooligans who come to beat you up. They are criminals, not patients.Next time protect yourself!
large scale corruption in health care is also responsible for violance against medical fraternity. when i name medical mafia lord ketan the most vocal community suddenly looses its vocal cord. that attitude is also responsible for violance against them. health care in india is 2nd most corrupt service in india 2nd only to POLICE service.
Amazing blog….
Excellently written…very influential indeed..
Nailed it!
very well penned down thoughts sir, every word what u hve written echoes most if not all the young (but not so young) doctors from cranium to calcaneum
but I have one question in my mind
who will take care of my own loved ones? who wud my own people look upto ? if every 2 nd doctor wud feel the same and quits or dicourages other people to quit!!!..
I know am being selfish but I need someone to treat my family ,my fellow people and their progeny
what if even those serving in border, on mountains, in sea, in air and on land just to see every other human living start feeling the same way
I still feel we need to encourage younger generations to take up this proffesion but teach them the harsh realities of this insensitive world, teach them to fight for what is their right and what is to be be left.
and lastly I want to tell all those grt minds posting a reply and questioning the validity of this article if you cannot empathize with a doctor dont but pls dont try and put ur half knowledge to use to make a complete nonsense.
this article truly represents the voice and wisdom of a doctor …its not a mere thought born out of frustration.
when someone gives the truth about the other side of the coin & v r not ready to face it, v call them ignorant. such mentalility is highly prevalent in medical fraternity. considering themselves hyper humans with all others being hypo humans
Those who are born to serve need to enter into this profession.
Other can opt for some other profession of their choice.
It is time for a paradigm shift in medicine in India and we the graduates are the one to make this change. We need to unite and use our intellectual potential to make change. If we do not do it, no one else will. We are the creme de la creme of intellectuals who obtained the highest marks in all the exams and took entrance exams to get into the position we are in. Well then it is our job to make paradigm shifts. Some of the solutions are quite straight forward. Our strengths need to be reinforced and our weakness banished. Let us take one at a time – here are some examples.
1. Clinical skills and ability to make quick solid decisions (Triage) is our forte. This is a skill that is essential and practical for a doctor patient ration that we have in India. So, it is essential that we do not ape US or western standards for medical care. How then do we survive? Get our own standards. This is absolutely essential. Our professional bodies run by Indian doctors and our Indian Journals must make this happen and must publicize it all over the media. This can easily be done if we collectively demand such white papers. So, the case where CPR methods at a Delhi Public Hospital was led to public beating up a young resident will never happen. There should be no delusions about CPR methods in USA being a standard in India. A practical need and resource based CPR recommendation that DOES not delete mouth to mouth or other “old fashioned” CPR methods should be adopted for Indian medical professionals based on what we need in India and what is available in India most commonly.
2. Unnecessary fleecing of patients by inflating the number of tests and number of medicines given is taken out and culprits booked in professional settings – IMA professional disciplinary committees. This will give public confidence and respect for doctors that is rapidly eroding.
3. Public and transparent rebuttal of people like Dr. Hegde who spew on a daily basis non-sensical negatives about modern medicine which only increases contempt for medical practice, must happen. His recent tirade against Angelina Jolie’s mastectomies and oopherectomies is a perfect example of his disservice to his fellow medical professionals. Such unscientific tirades must be stopped by us. We need to flood letters to editors in all the major newspapers with appropriate scientific rebuttals that are easy for the public to understand and lays bare his insane arguments.
4. Our work hour rules must be questioned and solved using logic that is appropriate for Indian circumstances. The idea of aping western 40 hour/week rule in India is unviable and everyone knows that this will not happen as we simply do not have the doctor to patient ratio to sustain such work hours. So, asking for such work hours is simply infuriating the public and the administration. A more pragmatic approach is to turn this around and ask for hours that are reasonable and based on what the needs are for the individual. So, making the case that junior residents are junior and that they need time to learn and to study for PG entrance exams should be emphasized and senior residents must be given more duty time than what they are assigned now at appropriate wages. Alternately that should be allowed to moonlight.
These are just a few examples – but the solutions for what we need to do are from within and we need to collectively solve. We cannot expect solutions to arrive from outside.
very well written sir…..everyrhing told is true…..all this problems shud have a solution in the near future.
Dear Dr. Radhakrishnan,
Extremely articulate and insightful blog! I am the 3rd generation Dr. from my family, and I luckily was able to read the signs much earlier and hence changed career track, but still very much connected to healthcare….
Alot of my Dr friends and batchmates are a very unhappy lot these days, as if the stress of dealing with patients was not enough, but the thought of having to meet financial targets and an almost non existant family life is also taking its toll, the addition of movie stars who are “Self proclaimed champion of the people” criticising does not really help either….
I think that society as a whole needs to come together and understand that the world has changed and gone are the days when healthcare was viewed as a social service, Drs like other professionals want a good life style, and a better life for their familes, which doesn’t unfortunately come for free….One of the biggest ironies i have come across is when patients ask for discounts on their bills, when they go to a liquor shop do they ever ask for discount? Nope i didn’t think so either so when a dr has saved a life why should they not get their full due?
Another issue is capping of fees, well lets bring it to legislation – If politicians want to cap a drs fees then lets apply it to all industries – cap lawyers, engineers, and business consultants fees as well, if they do that then fine, but why single out Drs?
Look forward to reading more of your blogs in future……
Sir, I’m in my drop year. I recently gave AIPMT 2015. I’m short 2-3 questions as per the expected cut off.
I have a friend sir. For the whole year, he couldn’t even score +150/720 in the test series of one of the these leading coaching institute. But will still manage to get a medical seat because of his SC quota. Probably, he cannot even locate where kidney is!
I really wanted to ask something. Where did I go wrong? Was the amount of hours I gave not enough or what I have chosen isn’t meant for me?
I’m 19 now. And in case I don’t get a college this year, I’ll be 20. That means, the person who was 2 years junior to me in the school might become my classmate.
I know the issue of quota thing is endless. But really want to seek the answer for the following.
1. Should I give it a year more?
2. The very morning I heard my dad telling mom to send me to Philippines. Should I consider it?
Wht abt ST SC OBC !!!!
ITs a headache for GEN…
To become a doctor is like a dream you just dreamt. To work as a doctor is just like you have woken up from your dream and have to be in reality. To continue as a doctor in the present situation in India is very challenging. On e always wants to go back to sleep for the dream. Doctors in India are gradually loosing their tensile strength coz some are just chopping it instead of pulling properly. Sir have penned down the facts and reality of the lives of Doctors in India who are still the best in the world comparing many factors. Thank you sir for your genuine thoughts and sharing. May The Almighty reward you. Dr Rick and Dr Promod you two have summed up excellently. I still remember that Human Brain is the most wonderful thing in the universe beating the universe itself . Doctors study human brain hence are the most wonderful human beings in the universe. Long live The Doctors.
I request all the Doctors who feel that selfless service is not possible or that the sense of disillusionment is consuming us… please at least once visit this beautiful project called “Dr.Hedgewar Hospital” in Aurangabad Maharashtra…
I beg you to get a view of this institution in person… Please contact me at 9987537512.. I can arrange for a visit.
P.s No commercial interest for me. I am a working Pathologist and Blood Bank Incharge at St.Georges Hospital Mumbai.
Roshan… absolutely mirror ur thoughts…. having been in this profession for more than 2 decades .
One small question … if all of us think that our children should be dissuaded from joining our profession .. god forbid if u or me have a MI … DO YOU want to see a cardiologist with 52 % knowledge or one who has paid 4 crores to get his licence. … A tough choice ??
I’m an Emergency Physician who escaped working in India after a short stint there, and now am relatively much happier in Dubai. Both my kids have decided not to pursue Medicine as a profession, seeing the unearthly hours I put in, working in the Emergency Department. The ED is the most risky place to work considering the critical nature of the patient and the emotionally charged condition of their bystanders. Shouting, Abusing, fighting all are routine experiences for us. At the end of a ghastly shift, I’m glad to haul myself to my understanding and welcoming family. Would I wish to see my children being subject to the same punishing schedule? Definitely not! My son who was pondering upon which course he would like to go for in University gave a reason why he decided against the medical field. He said “Dad, money is not everything, I want a better quality of life, even if I earn less than you do”. Smart kid. May he be happy and contended with his choice.
I totslly agree with dr pramod’s comments about this article
B.a.dentist
I set out with service and sacrifice towards better health care for the unaffordable rather not so affordable community.
Now the stars in my eyes have vanished. I hit the ground with a resounding thud seeing a patient slap a colleague at 2am for no fault of his.
I find it impossible to prescribe medicines or request for tests without people saying i am fleecing them. Though i run a free clinic and do not take any cuts whats so ever. When i calmly explain to them. The patients say what a load of bull we watch tv.
end of the day. Its frustrating.
Maybe india should comeup with a system like in the us of a where u have a primary physician refer for further mgmt. Or like the nhs. Where if u dont have insurance cover u get first aid and get kicked out.
im tired of hearing the words sacrifice and service.
i feel like i could burn the oath. Make hippocrates come wrk as a doctor in india so he could eat his oath himself.
disillusioned. Disappointed. Disheartened.frustrated. Overworked. Used as a doormat by both mgmt and pts. All are wrds tht come to my mind.
yes. I will forbid my kids or any child asking for my advise on career from entering this profession.
very well written! I trained in India and am now working in the US.. I still won’t let my children join the medical field.. Even in this country of dreams!
Along with all that you mentioned, it is now expected of doctors to provide selfless service by patients and the administration treats you like a business proposition.
I don’t regret being a physician yet, but I see burnout everywhere.. Suicide rates are highest among physicians even in US.. Second only to combat veterans… Now go figure and explain that 🙁
All that’s written over her for the doctors is true.. but, ALL professions do more or less work along the same lines.. Anyone working in a regular corporate would agree.. Long working hours,,, office politics..lack of monetary raises/increments… random layoffs…graveyard shifts.. zero personal life… its quite the same everywhere. Doctors are considered as God in India so the expectation from them is higher… but even the lesser Humans in this country are no better off….And its wrong to say that doctors deserve better because they put in 18 years of their life towards their education.. it was your choice brother!! What about researchers.. PhDs etc they get paid pittance too and work in in-human conditions
Extremely well written sir.. reflects all feelings experienced currently by the medical fraternity. U are right sir dat mix of good and evil exists in our field also. Hopefully there is an act of god and situation improves for us..
I am not a doctor but have some experience with similar dilemma faced by some other ‘social utility’ professions. What fascinates me is the ‘demand-supply’ principle that almost governs everything in our lives, gets tripped in medical profession. The nations that have the best ‘doctor/population’ ratio, in all likelihood, have the best monetary rewards for their doctors and those with the worst ratio (like India) have the most unattractive monetary reward!
Once, after my consultation with a GP in my neighbourhood, when I asked her whether she was aware that for the same half an hour of time a salon next door was charging four times more, her answer was that there were too many GPs!
I’m still in 2nd year mbbs in a private college.watever u described it fits for everyone in our college.
I would finish my course and pg and do something better than being a doctor. Being a doctor is a good thing about every doctor . remember guys we also did preschool school college and entered medical field with some good will.when it’s deteriorating why do u think I’ll serve anyone for free which will not serve me for anything.u don’t take a doctor for granted.
Respect doctors.if they step out of hospitals u don’t know how many families will suffer and how society will fall in just few days.Doctors are thre to heal not to give life to the dead
Dr Roshan ,
I completely agree with you in every way, Even I have been a victim of unnecessary consumer case for no fault of mine , secondly it is mandatory that before the consumer courts admit a case a opinion should be taken from a panel of doctors of that very specialty, but this is never done, Hence the doctors are in the mercy of lawyers and judges who are totally ignorant about medical science, they fail to differentiate between the difference between a complication and negligence.
False affidavits are produced, false witnesses are summoned to give evidence against doctors, and all the courts for reasons best known to them have a compassion towards the patients even, well being informed with proper evidence that the doctor is not guilty , The court feel as the doctors are covered by Indemnity insurance, and even otherwise financially sound can afford to pay the penalty.
Secondly a crical patient when brought to the hospital, the doctor does his best to save him , abut at times with all his efforts, fails to do so , for the condition that he is brought is very grave, but after the demise the relations of the patient take law into their hands ,and physically assault the doctor and his staff, and most of the times also destroy the furniture and expensive equipment.
The fact remains we are soft and easy targets, and who is to be blamed for this the doctors themselves, no other doctor comes forward to assist the colleague in distress, for no one wishes to get involved in a court case, secondly our Indian Medical Association, and Medical Council are of absolutely of no help to the doctors, the police also do nothing about the assault and finally it settles down to a compromise.
I have decided that I shall not admit and critically injured or ill patient , no house visits, finally I feel I May have to seek the help of bouncers or strong arm people to protect myself.
Excellent article Roshan. Yes, I find most of the doctors , including myself repenting for having studied medicine. Even if I completed medicine , should not have gone further into specialization and superspecialization. Unfortunately, we spend so much time in the medical school, we are unaware of the life outside and it’s too late to change our profession @ this stage. I think other than theives and dacoits we are the only professionals who are scared of going to work for the fear of being beaten up if we r not perfect in our jobs !
I am a recent MD pass out. I disagree with all that has been told by the author except the eye surgery event.
We the doctors must not blame any one for poor earnings and long duration of studies. Most of us knew this when we joined.
Those professional who earn by large more than an average doctor are those who serve foreign clients. Those who serve locals cant earn like that. So never compare with them.
And also dont compare with bussinessmen, polititians or actors who who studied least but earn heavily with equally heavy risk and of course the backup.
We know very well how many of our professors, our colleagues and management of our so called mother institutes earn money unethically if not illegally. So many earn by unnecessary tests, admission and treatments. We are silent about this. Infact many of us model them. Now why this cry for protecting honest doctors? Or blaming the country or govt? Can any one ask why all this problem arised. Because we lost our respect and faith from people. Dont blame them for everything.
We need medical ethics and rules much strict on doctors and accountability as rule than exceptions. We are not specially gifted people or god. Not even near. We work so many hours because we chose this. We get satisfaction with this. How many doctors discuss with patients enough to make them understand the problem and take decisions. How many allow their educated patients to read their case sheets? If the time u spend discussing with them is wasted charge them extra. But no. The truth is we are less skilled than we show off and the medical education is worst in the world. Nobody want to teach and most students pass on mercy!
The biggest villain in the whole story is MCI.
All my comments must be understood from majority point of view. Any one from central institutes and sincere doctors will definitely feel offended but message is directed to 70-80% doctors in India who are not honest.
Now plz dont start saying are only we doctors are dishonest??
Oh come off it. Nobody is 100% selfless. Nobody. So we can’t just say “oh you chose to be a doctor, so you need to be miserable and poor and overworked all your life and not dare complain. You got beaten up? Yeah, you probably deserved it.”
You know what’s going to happen? Nobody will want to perform this thankless “service”. We’ll have even fewer doctors in the future. If doctors were noble in the past, then the public was also more respectful of their efforts. It’s not just that doctors have changed. Everybody has. The world is more selfish, and one major reason is there are way too many people. So a person can’t help but be selfish in order to survive. It’s either that or perish. Even the planet can’t handle them, forget doctors who, as you say, are mere mortals. So who’s at fault here? Instead of declaring this a rewardless and undesirable profession, shouldn’t we focus on making it something that people would want to do?
Amazing article sir! Every damn word is resonating and intriguing!! It was like after each line I ended up saying, ohh thats so true #unfortunately! I happen to be just in the 3rd yr of mbbs, and the recent rise in violence against doctors, the overloaded working schedule and not to forget the low stipened, is sufficient to kill our charm towards the profession. Though that feeling of being a doctor and the selfless sacrifice part still remains, the practical outcomes these days are pretty threatening and no wonder that even after years of incredible hardwork , all we end up with, is frustation. ‘Hope’ is what remains & gets us going. No matter what, being a doc is in itself a blessing. 😉 Thought provoking article! Good luck medicos 🙂
Extremely well-written article, Dr. Radhakrishnan. I’ve seen so many of these things firsthand and it’s pitiful that people who belong to such an important profession – that of healthcare – are treated in this manner. Doctors will gladly work in rural and other under-served areas, but they need enough motivation for this. And unfortunately, today, mere moral gratification is not enough. They need to be paid well. Simple. If their salary is good they will not feel the need to resort to unethical ways to earn money. After investing so many years and backbreaking effort, a decent (or even above-average) wage isn’t too much to ask!
I feel that the only thing that will improve the situation is more government expenditure on healthcare. Because yes, quality medical care requires investment, time, effort and money. You simply cannot have your cake and eat it too. People are poor, they can’t always pay, agreed. This means that medical care is something that needs to be taken care of by public funds that are currently being wasted on extravagances by those who are supposed to allocate their use. It all comes down to government priorities and budgeting. We need representation for this – a political champion. Or two. Or a hundred.
Seriously guys whats with all the pessimism and incessant whining, nobody forced to you to become a doctor. Crying about these things own blogs isn’t going to change anything. If you have so many issues consider changing your profession and doing something you actually like doing.
As far as your children are concerned please let them make their own choice since you are so miserable with your own life decisions I don’t think you’re in a great position to be giving advice in the first place.
Good Luck to all of you!
(By the way I’m a young Indian Doctor who has no problems with the way his life is shaping out.)
I agree with Roshan Radhakrishnan. However, we need to understand why we are in this state? Firstly. corruption has invaded even IMC. These are doctors in high position who were expected to uphold the values. Instead they destroyed the profession. They were keen on sanctioningedical colleges and lining their pockets. This brings me to the second point. Secondly, private medical colleges are greedy and are demandingoney in crores to turn out poor quality doctors who are eager to get return on their investment. How do these candidates come out? This brings me to the third point. Thirdly, only senior corrupt doctors are paid by the private institutions to pass them. So where can a young doctor find his role model? Corrupt seniors? So the legacy continues. Fourthly, doctors are doctors enemies. Take any example of the senior doctor who exploits his juniors to run his hospital. What effort is made to regulate the profession from within? No wonder, outside agencies like the public, the courts, the media etc have all started bashing the doctors, rightly or wrongly, this was invited by doctors. It is time we have deep introspection of how we arrived here and how we can alter our direction? This should come from within the medical fraternity who hold the compass. If not, we will continue to suffer this fate. It is time we put our self pity aside and act with moral conviction.
Sir , its brilliantly written. Its the fact. I think this would be the condition of a real doctor who is real human from inside, who does not value money but he values his services to mankind. Such docs are often betrayed by gvt and the people.
Sad but truth. This divine job after having spent 15-18 years of hard work, in society must be rewarded.
Very true
Article re collect our memories
And present life too
Even whenever my wife tells my child to b a doctor I discourage her
But someone has to be to treat the people
We need to find a solution
think needs a strong mci
Strong ima
out of Buerocratic & political control
In Telangana and AP there is great craze to pursue medicine. I am told that people pay more than 50 lakhs for an MBBS seat and crores for a PG seat. If doctors get paid peanuts how on earth do they recove rthe money tat they have paid?
I have heard that doctors get paid handsomely and hence the craze for the course. Can anyone throw light?
Mr. Prasuna, you have raised a valid point. Allow me to try and explain.
I an a final year MBBS student, I belong to the upper middle class. I am one of the luckier students as far as Economic backgrounds go, but my father will not be able to afford a PG seat for me even if he spends all his savings.
Conlcusion? The people who pay that much money for an MBBS/PG seat are a part of the problem. They all belong to the upper classes of the society. Most often they are sons or daughter of the filthy rich(some of them doctors, yes) who then go on to become undeserving-inefficient doctors.
Why do they pay so much? For these people, it’s more about the respect/status than the money or the desire to serve or the love of science. Let’s be logical. They don’t need the money if they can spend so much for a PG seat. They just do it because still today, due to some of the remaining GOOD doctors, we still command some respect. These people have an abundance of money apparently, all they need is social stature.
As for the money doctors make, Yes, doctors do make a lot of money but the money comes late in the career. The money benefits the next generation more than it benefits the present or the previous one. For a young doctor, it is always a struggle, or at-least till his middle thirties.
Its truly a sorry state of affairs for doctors today in INDIA. Gone are the days when it was considered a noble profession. Public cannot be put to blame b’coz its the general distrust and hatred against the system in our country which has crept into their minds and results in hate crimes similar to road rage. Its the political system which should be incriminated, where on one side the western world has improved health care by leaps and bounds our system has rotten from bad to worse. The time has come that we should unite onto a common platform and launch crusade against the system.
Good article. Residency in india is painful it is
Like saja_e_kala pani without done any crime.I sometimes think it more painful than that atlest
Prisoners give food on time and some time to sleep.
This article hits the nail on the head. I’m a dentist and I would say the situation is far worse in India in the dental field. I graduated from a govt college (they told us oh graduating from a govt college goes a long way in getting a good job… Plain BS!!). and worked for 4 years before I decided to quit and take the US national boards. And now I’m a dentist in Dallas, Texas. I can only say that was the best decision I made in life.. I was earning 4000 rupees a month back in India for one year and the rest of the three years were voluntary. 4000 rupees!! That is approx $64 a month!! It’s a joke! The volume of patients I was seeing was extremely high and imagine the frustration .. No materials, no equipment! I hear from friends who completed post grad from govt dental colleges that it’s so hard to even get a decent job as a specialist. Besides that, my friends who are trying to get into post grad after completing med school in India, the kind of treatment they receive from patients’ families and the dirty politics they endure. It’s heart wrenching to spend so many years of your life to what u would say service to mankind – only to somewhere lose sight of your own life in the process!
The frustration is well expressed and not surprisingly most of the doctors commented shared the sentiment. I think some reflection is needed here. Not long ago doctors were the most trusted professionals and now the most hated. Why? Does the profession takes any responsibility for this change at all?
Well, in the article, you mention that doctors feel like a god, but they are not really the god. But we as patients, do believe that doctors are actually gods for us.
We, as doctors, don’t mind being called God, but we discourage the practice because it comes with strings- strings of unrealistic expectations that very often is very hard for a young doctor to live up to. We all have parents, friends, children…our own lives. Sometimes it is hard for the patient to understand that.
Why does any one become a doctor?The reasons are many, like:as a youngster you saw that prople gave great respect to doctors, and you wished to be a recipient of such respect.you felt, like your parents that doctors are simply great souls . Becoming great is of course a compelling attraction for any youth. It is the resulting impulse that brought you to the medical college , in order to become what you wish to be;.you remained in this fantasy world till you were out in the ‘sick world’ ;you are destined to be happy no more.you become covetuous for money , fall in unethical tracts , remain unhappy as pong as you are not a billionaire like the other fellows. Indeed there are no souls out there intent on making you happy.sick people and their relatives are a deprived lot and they in turn deprive you of your time ,peace of mind, your self esteem.
In my own case it is like a rebirth from the day I left the profession after about fourty years
Brutally honest and yet honestly brutal ! You put your hands into the darkness that is called selfless service and yanked it out into the sunlight for all to see.
You mentioned pole dancers in Vegas. I, for one, on my 36th hour of “selfless” duty wanted to be just the stray puppy outside my ward.
There it was scurrying up and about, tail wagging, strong and confident. That day, I would have done anything to be that creature!
They say only death, taxes and change itself is permanent. Hogwash. They forgot regret.
Now, as my little girl lights up my universe every moment, I unlearn and redo selflessness. Feels like being given a second chance. And this brings us to why your article resonates so much within me. Yes, I do agree with you. Anything else but this madness.
All points noted. But I know personally of doctors who are so dedicated, that though he is tired he will smile , listen to you and he cures you. While finishing the final check up my heart is so grateful. I think that is why this profession is so great. So girls and boys in doubt , you will be rewarded because you are an element of God and Hope for someone in pain.
Brilliantly written! I hope that forearm isn’t one of the effects of your patient bystanders. When I started to realize what’s life and what I need to become in life a lot of thoughts kicked in. I felt being a doctor is being the best you can do to serve the mankind. I did finish my last exam of what needs to make me a qualified Orthopedic surgeon and I am having second thoughts of settling down in this country. The only reason I wanted to stay back here because I very dumbly thought ‘India is my motherland and I need to serve it till my last breath.’ A lot of people would have stayed back for the very same reason. When I see the incidents that happen in the very own hospital I work in, it scares the shit out of me. You get accused of things that were beyond your control. I can go on and on. But hey! Who’s gonna come to our rescue?? Just think of it. You and I are the most invisible people on this earth.
I seriously wish that one of us takes the initiative, form an association that protects us from all the violence, have a lawyer to defend us in courts and work as one single body. One for all and all for one. If such a thing can become a reality our fraternity can do wonders.
Cheers!
My future cast to this beloved motherland of mine and its 1.25 billion children. The way things are developing, brilliant students after passing 10+2 shall go for easier and greener pastures like engineering, IT, management ( yes, getting admission in premier institutes only might be tough but not tougher, the courses are no match to medicine) and commerce, pushing out the mediocre occupying these seats. Students will have to burn more oil because IITs and other premier engg or management institutes will get an undivided attention of the entire cream class. The left over mediocre will then join medical colleges who along with other quota candidates and private medical college graduates will be taking care of health of all these Aamir Khans, Gabbars, businessmen, corporate class and political masters and that will be the day I shall give a big 1000 watt smile. I know when I will be on my death bed, some competent colleagues of mine would be alive to lessen my agony. I only pity the generation in 20s-30s and their successors.
One more attack on a doctor. A psychiatrist Dr. Sanket Mundada fromsrirampur, Maharashtra was beaten by patients relatives today morning. It was just first visit of patient and pt was rowdy so was adviced for admission . And relative started beating doctor.
One more attack on a doctor. A psychiatrist Dr. Sanket Mundada from Srirampur, Maharashtra was beaten by patients relatives today morning. It was just first visit of patient and pt was rowdy so was adviced for admission . And relative started beating doctor.
I am an Mbbs student and I find it hard to believe that far away his stated. My parents are doctors and I am very sure they would not have made me pursue this field if it did not have its advantages. As for the salary of Rs.50000. After clearing my Mbbs while preparing for my pg the government is going to provide me a salary of 70000(a month) for compensation in working in rural areas, so it’s not exactly a service.
My parents and other doctors are highly respected in my town. There are occasional outburst from patients, every doctor goes through this phase.
I understand your frustration but I think it’s wrong to misguide people about this profession and yeah its a noble profession.
Well said sir, your agony resonates, I am a Naturopathic physician, who looks forward to serve, but not been given an offer. But I consider this as India where one could get a medical degree for money… one could challenge everything in the name of rationality. One could do whatever they want and get away with it. One could simply shove down a case underneath a carpet without noise. Where honor killings happen. Where caste violence happen. Where everything are corrupt, and opportunities are not given to the deserving. I still would love to serve my country and my country men irrespective of anything that comes midway. Thank you sir.