Your Taxi driver could be a doctor
This caption appears strange but could be true if not to day it can be in the near future. Consider this. Recent headline in the newspapers revealed that more than 200000 youngsters appeared for the NEET test leading to entry into medical colleges. According to government figures there are nearly 100000 graduate every year. There are about 45000 post graduate seats available. As most graduates want to or aspire to become one kind of specialist or the other, these 45,000 will be taken. what about the remaining 65,000?. These will try and try and most give up. They during this period of trying and later join the unemployed or under employed pool of doctors. Some will get jobs here and there and lucky ones may become medical officers in PHCs. But there are only that many jobs available. One estimate says around 5000 jobs are available in the government sector. There was a time many doctors chose to be General practitioners. To day very few want to be GPs. The reasons are many. One is that the young doctors are brainwashed to become specialists. Another reason is the cost involved in setting up practice and to mange the waiting period that may stretch any where from 6months to 2 years or even more. Another reason is that of being alone and to fend for himself if a situation were to arise. Most like fairly secure hospital jobs. Even these institution based jobs are no longer secure if one goes by the newspaper reports of assaults on doctors. The profession seem to have lost it's once hallowed position in the society
So what is going to happen to this huge pool of unemployed doctors that is increasing year by year. Its a mystery to some of us that the craze for becoming doctors still exist in this surprising scale! This has to and it will end and many medical colleges will close shutters. When he or she is denied the role of doctor, what should the young man and woman do? They have to relearn another profession and driving comes handy!