Young doctors with age-old problems

junior doctors form a huge segment of the medical community in india, especially with both government and private colleges producing hundreds of mbbs graduates who earn little and are made to feel unimportant by patients. while government junior doctors have unions through which they can vent their grievances, private college and hospital students have no such platform.a junior doctor is somebody who has finished his or her mbbs and is undergoing internship at a hospital attached to the college. their biggest complaint is low or the lack of stipend. they are also piqued at not being given due respect by patients. while government doctors are better off with a fixed stipend, the same is not the case with private hospital junior doctors. even stipend policies vary from hospital to hospital. according to dr l chandramma, medical superintendant, lady curzon and bowring hospital, "in bangalore, there are five hospitals attached to bangalore medical college and the rest are india population project units, maternity hospitals, nursing homes, etc. the number of junior doctors is huge and i think they are being treated quite well. the demands in the strike weren't justified." but this is what some junior doctors have to say: dr sudha menon (name changed on request), pg, manipal hospital: "the biggest grouse we have is money. we spend the best years of our life studying and spending money. of course, we do it by choice but the state needs to treat us better. there's too much of surplus graduates and not enough vacancies in hospitals. i get rs 2,000 and i am on a contract basis. the receptionist in the hospital is made permanent in a short while but we have zero job security. it's frustrating." dr beena shetty (name changed on request), mbbs, dr br ambedkar college hospital: "i don't get any stipend. but this is because i am a payment seater. in our college only the merit seaters and management or nri quota seaters get a stipend. they get anything from rs 1,500 to rs 3,000. we work 24 hours and often do work that senior doctors dump on us and yet we get little respect as doctors. we cannot shift from the college-hospital because we need a no objection certificate and that is a big hassle. college authorities don't make it easy. we are being treated very shabbily. in india as a doctor, by the time you start earning you are 45.' dr rajan ramesh (name changed on request), mbbs, ms ramaiah hospital: "we don't get any real work although we are qualified to do it. all that we seem to be doing is writing case sheets, progress notes, requisitions etc. even when there are patients to attend, we aren't allowed to volunteer. i get a stipend of rs 1,000. i got through the merit list. senior doctors are helpful and junior doctors, although we have our problems, do have a nice time at the hospital. it's fun to interact with the seniors. it's all part of the game." dr pretesh rohan kiran, mbbs, kims: 'stipend is a big concern for me. i don't get anything. the money and perks for doctors in india are very poor. so junior doctors start off with a shaky future. we can't even go abroad now because getting a visa is very difficult. the us doesn't want too many indian doctors anymore. there is a lot of politics too. ethical consideration is something that's troubling us junior doctors now because what we see in real life is very different from what we are taught about the profession in college. we are exposed to commercialism. patients do not like to be treated by us." dr vijay kumar, president, karnataka state junior doctors association: "we get a stipend of rs 5,500 now. the main problem we have is the implementation of the residency system. hospitals in the country require junior doctors to be in the hospital 24 hours for emergencies. but karnataka has no such facility for junior doctors. a government order on this was passed in 1994 but till date it hasn't been implemented. they cite lack of fund as the reason behind this. of the four government medical colleges in karnataka, bangalore has one. but it has no accommodation for junior doctors. we have no proper infrastructure to work and government hospitals are not patient-friendly."