A Physician's Conundrum

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For decades,an MBBS degree in India represented security,social respect and a clear professional trajectory.The sacrifices demanded by medical training were accepted with the belief that stability would follow.Today,that assumption is quietly but steadily collapsing.

Around 2018-2019,the expansion of MBBS seats accelerated dramatically!Medical colleges multiplied,intake numbers surged, and the justification was simple-”India needs more doctors”.While true in principle,this expansion ignored a very critical flaw-postgraduate seat,job opportunities,healthcare infrastructure and pay scales did not grow at the same pace!The system widened at the entry point but narrowed sharply thereafter.

As a result, medicine has entered an era of extreme saturation.NEET PG is no longer just cut-throat,it has become a high-stakes bottleneck with a poor stress-to-reward ratio.Multiple attempts to clear it,is the new norm.And many graduates spend years trapped in exam cycles, postponing financial independence and personal milestones.Preparing endlessly for a single exam has somehow become an accepted way of life.

For those who do not secure PG seats, the job market offers little to no consolation.Entry-level salaries are often disproportionate to the workload, responsibility,and legal liability shouldered by MBBS doctors.Corporate hospitals benefit from an oversupply of manpower,while government jobs remain limited and rigidly controlled.

What is more concerning is that saturation is no longer limited to a few branches!Clinical and non-clinical specialties alike are feeling the strain.As numbers rise faster than demand, prestige declines and growth stagnates.In this sense, MBBS increasingly mirrors other saturated undergraduate degrees, such as BTech—valuable,demanding,but no longer sufficient on its own to ensure stability or upward mobility.

The most telling consequence is the silent migration away from medicine-An increasing number of medical graduates are transitioning into non-clinical and nonmedical careers-management, health tech, pharma, consulting, data analytics, or entirely unrelated fields.This shift is not born out of apathy or loss of passion,but purely out of necessity.

When sustained effort fails to provide security or dignity-adaptation becomes inevitable.

What do you think?

MBH/AB

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This piece captures the real-world tension many clinicians face — balancing evidence-based practice with individual patient needs, preferences, and resource constraints. Medicine isn’t always black-and-white, and arriving at the best decision often requires careful judgement, communication, and flexibility. Articles like this help highlight how nuanced and human clinical decision-making truly is.

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You’re right, MBBS no longer guarantees security. Unbalanced expansion, PG bottlenecks, and poor compensation have eroded stability. The shift away from medicine reflects systemic failure, not lack of dedication.

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Following the 2018 seat surge, MBBS saturation hit strongly, surpassing both PG seats and jobs. While corporate jobs undervalue frontline duty, NEET PG cycles lock graduates in limbo. It should come as no surprise that many turn to consultancy or health technology. PG expansion and equitable compensation are urgently needed. Excellent analysis.

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This is really surprising, as often two options were top choices for careers in Indian households: doctor and engineer.
But now, due to awareness of new fields, students are choosing different, diverse careers.
Also, doctors are extremely important in healthcare. AI might replace many jobs, but I don’t think we will trust it enough to treat us directly without the supervision of a human medical professional.

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Lack of proper system and guidelines and good working space is actually absent and that has really resulted in the quality of healthcare. Thus many are thinking of better career prospects. Urgent policies are essential for this sector to perform well.

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Yes very rightly said. Everything has a limit and when that limit is exceeded you either cope up with it or change the path and majority of people choose to change the path. Also corruption is the edge on which the system is working and poors cannot fight against the connections of corrupt people and this leads to change in the path as well.

Hence, it needs to be highlighted that if corruption goes down one can try to sustain but it cannot be maintained as the person is already under stress.

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