Leadership crisis of medical profession in India – Remembering Dr BC Roy and why do we need more real BC Roys (not awardees) Dr BC Roy was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal in India. He remained in his post for 14 years as an Indian National Congress candidate, from 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a highly respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter. BC Roy was not only a statesman but also influenced medical profession at his time. He laid down the sound foundation for professional development of colleagues with foundation of institutions such as Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Medical Council of India (MCI). Being physicians himself, he made sure that the medical professionals continue to have important role in future development of health system of our country. He perhaps had national building in his mind. Today with more than 380 medical colleges (largest number in the world) we are making 50,000 MBBS doctors per year. In a country where we keep on talking about deficiency of health care professionals, majority of newly produced doctors are under employed or un employed. In coming five years we will be producing a quarter million (250,000) more doctors who would not have any work in a country of 1.30 billion population. As a common sense, a lay person would like to believe that most of these doctors are greedy who want to remain in urban areas for monetary benefits or worldly pleasures. But the truth is reverse. In fact there is not demand for medical graduates in India. There is not campus interview for any level of medical qualification at any medical institution in India (including AIIMS). The average salary of a fresh medical graduate (MBBS) in sizzling cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai is much lower than an entry level call centre employee. At most cities this income can not support a lower middleclass living. In under developed states like Bihar, for every available post for a less than $500 / month paid public sector medical officer there are more than 100-200 applications (please confirm from the matrix of the online doctor recruitment system of Bihar State). Majority of the medical graduates are engaged in post graduate entrance test for the first 5-10 years of their career and youthful lives instead of engagement with patient care. There is design to keep the doctors away from communities. Maintain high level of morbidity and force people to visit hospitals for industrial consumption of medical goods. Today the relevance of BC Roy is more than ever. As a matter of fact medical professionals effectively do not have any leadership in India. We have giants but no leaders. We have celebrity physicians; who are rather being the leaders of profession are actually representatives of industry. The so called professional organizations have been hijacked by hospital owners. There are deans and director struggling with their routing job without any national vision. Majority of doctors do not have any forum to voice their concerns. Their issues are often being misrepresented through the proxy leaders. The professional fraternity is getting more and more structured like hierarchical pyramids with few super specialist (? Sub special) at the top and a large number of primary care physicians at the bottom. Medical professionals are compartmentalized into caste like rigid occupational vocations. The vocational training and long term career path for primary care doctors have been blocked at the regulatory body. Due to aggressive unregulated business practices of the health industry, an environment for mal practice and corruption has been created for high consumption of pharmaceutical and consumable medical products. Physicians and doctors who used to be trusted partners of the patients and communities are losing faith of the people. The position to negotiate on the behalf of the common people has been severely compromised. Instead of taking professional call; the existing / proxy leadership of medical profession are busy in defending their deeds and maintaining status quo. How long this will continue? There is a leadership vacuum and a new leadership has to emerge from the newly qualified young doctors. All medical students and young doctors must take up this challenge not only for the professional which they belong to but also for the society which we all are part of and the country which we live in. In the New Year 2015 let us pledge to make at least 50,000 new BC Roys..
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 13:26:00 +0000
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