What makes a medical doctor in this world that is guided by profit seekers (Business men) and the "wanna be famous" (politicians)? I am not sure. But I think Suneet has it all right in her article "Leaving Medicine". I see it happen, children die just because the bill couldn't be paid while the policy is loud and clear " No treatment unless you pay." It is the payment that makes my salary. With that stamped in my pay cheque I can't have room for compassion and I just have to turn a patient away in the name of professionalism.

A doctor should be a patriot in saving lives (that is what hippocratic oath says). How is that possible when you have strings attached from all corners, I mean the tax has to be paid, insurance, you have to eat, sleep, and the list goes on?

In the end of the day we trully are in "physical exhaustion, mental strain,financial difficulty, mental anesthisia,legal disputes and so on."

Yes we are overworked and underpaid, especially in my part of the world. But when you see children dying, a nation being swept away while there is knowledge to save this nation and earn that sense of satisfaction for having done that. Then you see the worth of standing amidst it all.

Last year I watched my mother die and then my niece. I have no idea what went wrong simply because there was no Doctor to tell me. And then I realised how important one person could be to another, what difference one can make. And My will to become a doctor grew stronger than ever, not because of the deaths. But because I want to be there for someone else, someone who needs my knowledge. This should answer Suneet's question of why I do it!

In this developing nation that I am in, I am more appreciated for trying than am I sued for a mistake. For as long as it remains such... I shall keep trying and try harder to avoid mistakes. I shall not do what is beyond my ability and I shall certainly not play God.

With this little vow I have made to myself, medicine shall not be a tool for "self destruction" but away to self realisation.

I think this again sparks off the now-long-debated issue or rather I would say the internal mental conflict of most medics. The initial 1 or 2 years in Med School are spent in trying to cope up with the schedules trying to bridge the gap between what is taught and what is learnt. It is only later that one realises how different the world is in a medical college and the sooner one understand sand accepts this fact the better it is for both one's own self as well as the profession. We have to understand that this profession is different from any other 9 to 5 job.

To be able to sustain oneself and keep going there has to be motivation from inside as is visible from Fatma's letter. Despite the realisation that doctors are human too and there's a fallibility attached to all humans the fact remains that society does place doctors in high esteem which is perhaps the most satisfying reward for all the labour and mental struggle that goes into the making of a doctor. After all that they see and have gone through and realising how little they can do sometimes to prevent a fate that nature has decided i don't think it is in the capacity of any doctor to even think of playing God.

Still i would say - to each his own and i believe that Suneet is very honest in identifying what clearly is his innate wish.

I can sense a feeling of frustration in your voice Suneet. I would like to show you the picture in a different perspective. As you have mentioned self-destruction and Fatma self-realisation there will be some self- for everyone, which motivates him or her to become a doctor. As different people have different goals like charity for some, passion for some and money for some. Everyone has some reason to do so but in your case I see that you are unable to find a reason. If you could get an answer for that I am sure you will reconsider your decision of leaving a ‘noble’ profession.

I feel medical profession is the best in the world. Being a doctor you can save the lives of people, whatever stress you undergo but you are treated as god by patients, which will be an honor being a doctor.

I feel suneeth is frustrated as his letter says what about friends, families and life outside medicine. Being a doctor you may not have to work 24 hrs a day. After working hours you still have time to spend with friends and family like other professionals.

As I am from a developing country, here the young students dream of becoming doctors and you suneet thinking of leaving medicine, whatever reasons you may have I strongly oppose it.

As vineet says different people have different goals to be a doctor like charity for some, passion for some and money for some, so you to try to find your reason suneeth then you will enjoy your profession.

As suneeth says evrey tiny slip of doctors is seized as a scandal, good doctors are hauled to court to be sued, i feel all these things happen very rarely. What about people who have made great discoveries as doctors.

It's great to hear of people making it huge in the world of medicine and achieving glorious proportions in the professional world. The more you read about the latest developments , most of which take place in a largely priveleged western world, the more you are lured to be a part of it and the more you want to do specialisation in the big fields of medicine.

But, then the truth is if all this development is worth its expenditure, coz, most of the people in the third world countries really do not require a huge five star hospital facility. All these people in the countries, like mine, really look to have basic facilities , which for the reasons known still are not accessible.. and the reasons are :

1. The political unwillingness and inattention to the crumbling health status of their citizens despite the largely available funds.
2. Lack of inclination on the part of doctors to serve at the grass root level, which largely stems from the fact that at these levels most of the doctors are ill-equipped and find it difficult to work as they land at these levels from a largely well equipped tertiary care level.
3. NGO's and PUBLICITY: most of the non-government organisations which supposedly work for the provision of these services, actually donot do more than providing financial grants at the central level...
4. Unfavourable response to those willing to help

Sharing a personal experience:

I have always had the inclination to do social service in the health field and i have been ready to do it for a meagre amount of pay. For this i have submitted my resume that i am a medical graduate, and my qualification is good enough to serve at the very basic level in countries of the africas, which suffering from the epidemic of AIDS and endemic of Poverty , need nothing more than a basic medical care. I have found my application being rejected on the account of .....LACK OF A MOTIVATIONAL LETTER and LACK OF A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION...... which i feel are baseless and useless criterion created by high headed governing authorities who sit in the comforts of airconditioned offices and have only contact to the ground reality in the form of statistics on their note pads.

Doctors at large are willing to serve the ailing , but the fact of the matter is incapability and annoying lack of response from those who should allow the doctors to be at the place where the service is really required.

The medical fraternity can help by utilizing the knowledge available to it provided the administrators provide them the opportuniy and the basic facility at the grass level.

Dear Editor, I read the article by Suneet Nayee. Even I hear from my mentees about stress they undergo and about leaving the course. Medical curriculum is neither easy nor difficult. It feels easy if you "want" to do it and it feels difficult if you "need" to do it and feels almost impossible if you are "forced" to do it. Now it has become a fashion joining the medical program. Every child likes to become doctor or engineer. In young school children, there will be a desire to become doctor, lawyer, engineer, policeman etc. But as they grow up, they start thinking about one course which they like to continue with. There is no point pushing the children to medicine if they don’t like to do the course. Some parents think that it is prestigious to have their child doing medicine. But the child may not like to do it. This causes all the stress and negative thinking.

Every student who is willing to join medical course has to think twice before they enter the course. He or she has to know if it is a "need" or "want". If it is a "need", then there is a risk of failure. I have learned from my students that there are only 25 percent of students who "want" to do medicine and 65 percent of them "need" to do it and 10 percent of them are "forced" to do it. The stress is more in "need" category and maximum in "forced" to do category.

Once you are in the medical course, try to cope up with the stress. You just have to get addicted to a good routine that’s all. You think of people having bad habits like smoking, drinking and drug addiction. When they started to smoke, drink or take drugs, they would have had some difficulties but after getting addicted, they can not come out of it. In life everything is like that. If you get addicted to a good routine, the most difficult things become very simple. So get up early in the morning, do your work regularly. Don’t keep anything pending for tomorrow. Last minutes workers will feel much stressed in medical curriculum and always talk about leaving the course.

If you look at the positive side of life, the doctors are the most respected among the professionals because they save lives and comfort the dying. You can earn money as well as get respect if you become a doctor. The first few years are stressful. But you have to remember that the fruit doest come as soon as you put the seeds, you have to take care of the plant for a few years before it flowers. When you are already in the middle of the river, why to think of going back? You go back or front, it is the same distance right? Once you are in the middle of the course, don’t look back. Proceed and success will be yours.

"It's all about respect", as it is frequently quoted in the movie 'The Godfather' and it is quite true. We live our lives and strive for just two things Love and Respect. Of course there we believe we live for Money and Sex but the truth is the latter is just a way of celebrating the former.

Eventhough there are millions of professions in which you can get both Love and respect, being a Doctor is the easiest way to do so. There are many professions that would give you money, but only Medicine would give you respect and infact pay you for it.

You would say a politician is respected, also true for a CEO of a huge multinational, but behind their backs people actually hate them. That's not true for doctors. Your patients repect you and also love you for treating them, for helping them.

So eventhough an ordeal in medical school is every youngster's nightmare remember you are working your way to get a degree and enter a profession in which you would be respected, atleast you don't have to shoot people to get that like they had to in the "GODFATHER" !!

Remember the world is your oyster. If not lucky in one part of the world, try another part. Yes medicine to get a job is a hard life. You are a 3rd year med student, so you should not be stressing so much at this stage yet. Its making your depresses and so much to cloud your mind to think properly, rationally and with common sense and understanding with logic.

If you want to succeed in any career you will have to work hard. Yes in the UK it is somewhat worse to work as a junior doctor let alone to get a job these days! But then over a third of uk docs leave uk to get a job in Australia and new Zealand. Others become GPs here in UK.

As a doctor as in other professions, e.g. soldiers, lawyer police personal, fire-fighter etc. you will see the worst sorts that life that can throw at you. That’s where maturity & being mentally strong comes in. you need to pull your socks up and understand that life is no rose for no one. It’s a jungle out there.

You need to roll back and ask yourself why you went into medicine. What has motivated you do the first 2 years so far. What has made you change your perception of medicine has a bottomless pit into hell?

You do indeed blow out of proportion about doctors being sued. overseas doctors are the majority to blame for the increase number of doctors in litigation issues, but then that I blame the PLAB as it does not really assess the quality of a doctor (recently 75% of junior uk docs sat the plan as an experiment and 75% failed it, compared to 45% fail rate of overseas docs!).

Anyhow before i digress further you need to evaluate yourself if medicine is for you and if so, in UK or not?

If not cut your losses and more to another profession. But beware I know in terms of MBA holders or IT consultants or lawyers life is similar - long hours, physical exhaustion, stress. Only thing that brings comfort is that they have better pay. But they have all the other factors you say i.e. physical exhaustion, mental strain, financial difficulty, mental anaesthesia, legal disputes. So grow up, pull your socks and face reality my friend. Assess yourself and its relation to the world and where you see yourself in it. Peace in yourself is your number one concern :)

Peace to all!! :))

I totally agree with you! Medicine may be rewarding and a good profession but I believe you work to live, not the other way round! To be moved from hospital to hospital every 6 months, spend 3 hours a day commuting each day and work unsociable hours is no life at all. I want to enjoy my life while I can and medicine just does not allow you to do that.

If you don't leave medicine, it will destroy you. So you've made the right decision, get a life, get out of medicine ASAP.

I know no happy doctors, the ones that are "happy" are clinically insane people with massive personality disorders. Nothing has changed in Medicine in the last 10 years since I graduated, we still have moronic bullying consultants, and daily battles with the nursing staff. You are still bleeped at all hours of the day and night while you wearily attend to the sick and dying.

What a waste of a life being a doctor is, I've wasted mine I'm glad to see you aren't wasting yours.