Tags:
Journalism of Courage
I writer this in reference to the article, ‘Doctor, teach thyself’ by Pamela Philipose (IE, June 5). Reading this, I find that most people still don’t realise the extent of frustration among doctors, especially freshers. The writer talks of the inappropriateness of comparing the doctors with IIT or IIM graduates. Maybe true, but I think we require a little more insight into the comparisons.
The average medical student is a guy or gal who has slogged it through the entrance examinations, only to discover that pre-admission slogging is only a preview of the more ‘wonderful things’ to come during his medical studentship. At the end of it, the intern (house surgeon) is paid a “princely” stipend of Rs 3,000-4,000 a month. Then begins the next glorious chapter in a medical student’s life. In slang we call it the ‘entrance employee’ phase. This is a vague period varying from a few months to a few years in which medicos spend time relearning all the four and a half years of their medical education in order to get through the post-graduate entrance examinations. On an average only 5 to 10 per cent of students sitting for the entrance actually get a seat. Therefore, depending upon your aptitude, capacity for slogging and specialty of choice, you may have to wait a long time — being virtually unemployed for a significant period in the prime of your life.
Most techies, in comparison, have a five-day week and a pay packet much beyond what a medico can imagine even after 10 years of undergraduate and postgraduate study. I’m not saying that techies don’t work hard, or that they don’t have any tension. They definitely do, but looking at it from the average medico’s viewpoint, it seems more than a little unfair. A specialist doctor in the health service after a minimum of 10 years of medical education receives a remuneration of Rs 12,000 a month. With such ‘lucrative’ prospects, can you blame a doctor for exploring greener pastures? A fresher at a call centre or an IT company after three to four years of education gets something like Rs 20,000 a month. Isn’t something amiss here?
As for Philipose and others like her in the media, all I can say is: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Media, heal thyself.
The writer is asst professor, dept of dermatology & venereology, AIMS, Kochi
