A thread🧵 on unemployment and underemployment among doctors in Tamilnadu;
An MBBS doctor friend of mine, let's call him 'X' , a close friend in his 50s, rings me up from his village in Thanjavur regularly. He earns Rs 20,000 a month working as a duty doctor at a local hospital. With this money, he supports an unemployed wife, & 2 children.
He sobs softly, telling me his financial woes, barely able to keep his head above water. When I did my M.S, I pleaded with him to do so too, since I consider him far more intelligent than I am.
He couldn't,since he had to take up work due to the financial conditions in his household. Now, the train has left the station.This is not the story of a single 'X', there are 1000s of Dr.'X's spread out throughout TN, weeping quietly in their houses. How did things come to this?
TN that contributes 6% of India's population gives 12% of India's MBBS graduates. There r 37 govt medical colleges in the state, offering 5125 MBBS graduates yearly. A further 24 pvt medical colleges add to the pool.
11 new medical colleges were inaugurated by the PM in TN recently, something celebrated universally by the media. But r they aware of the consequences? THERE R INADEQUATE JOBS FOR DOCTORS IN TN! There r only so many doctors that the govt can absorb, & far fewer by the pvt sector.
Pray, where will the others find employment??? I personally know many MS postgraduates languishing without jobs, & a few working as duty doctors. Why, in my own street, there r 10 doctors who hv their clinics. 10 patients/ day is a good day for them.
Tamilnadu has become a big MBBS factory, churning out more and more doctors. But where r the jobs? Many TN doctors r turning to real estate and business. In 10 yrs, they will be queuing up fr jobs as Zomato delivery boys and Ola drivers.
The W.H.O recommends a Doctor-Patient ratio of 1:1000. TN has a ratio of 1: 253, nearly equal to, hold your breath, The U.S. of A, Norway and Sweden! Are we trying to make every beggar a doctor, & every doctor a beggar?
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