While most young doctors are more than happy to be serving people in urban cities, most of them are hesitant when it comes to working in rural areas. Addressing the issue in the Rajya Sabha recently, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that despite offering several incentives young doctors are not willing to serve in rural areas. Well, if you ask young doctors, they claim that from the lack of infrastructure, opportunities to low salaries, there are various reasons for this growing trend.
“You still get better incentives in places like UP and Haryana but if I want to go back and serve rural areas of my hometown in Rajasthan, I will not make any money. All you get there is `25,000 (and no incentives). Your professional growth also stops in these areas,” says Dr Naleen Mathur, a junior doctor at a government hospital.
The mindset of patients is a major concern for many young doctors. “Patients in rural areas are hesitant to take medical help. Even if they do, they don’t follow the prescription given by the doctor. Many of these patients take medicines by just consulting friends and family. This is quite discouraging for young doctors,” says Dr Siddharth Jain, who works at AIIMS.
The problem is more deep-rooted than it seems. An intern at AIIMS tells us how there has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of students going to the US for their Masters degree. “As a part of my 3-month internship, I’m currently placed in Ballabgarh, Faridabad, but I can’t do this for the rest of my life. After studying from the best medical colleges in Delhi, anyone would want a better future and a good lifestyle. The infrastructural facilities of the hospitals in these areas is not upto the mark which makes it demoralising for a doctor,” he says.
Devinder Narain, head, corporate relations, Shobhit University feels that lack of knowledge enhancement makes a doctor feel stifled as there is no room for any peer discussion and there are no doctors’ forum which can act as a consulting platform for the budding doctors in such places.
“The government should open colleges somewhere near the rural belt so that the infrastructural facilities improve,” he suggests.
Most youngsters definitely don’t want to work for “just a cause” as a better future awaits them at the best hospitals in the country. But is there a way to balance the two?
Answering in the affirmative, Dr Sapna (name changed on request), Medical Officer at one of the government hospitals tells us, “I set up free camps with my friends and conduct regular check-ups at various slums in the city. It was difficult initially, but we managed as many young doctors came forward to support us. People are willing to work for a cause but you can’t expect youngsters to invest so much time in studies and then leave a handsome salary and a good city to just sit and work in a rural area, where there is a lack of even the basic facilities.”
Dr Asha, a gynecologist in West Delhi, feels the government should pay these doctors working in rural areas higher salaries and extra perks. “Along with that, better hygiene and living conditions should also be provided to them,” she says.