Career Prospects

Hospitals and dispensaries are spread all over the country. Today, every village block has access to at least a Primary Health Center. Doctors can seek employment in government hospitals and dispensaries, primary health centers and clinics. 

Recruitment for these jobs is conducted by the UPSC and the State Public Service Commissions. Employment is also available for doctors in private nursing homes and polyclinics. 

General practitioners as well as specialists can also set up their own private clinics independently, or in partnership with specialists in other fields of medicine, provided they have adequate capital for setting up the establishment, with the necessary equipment, medicines and instruments. 

Research institutions, councils and clinical laboratories run by the Central and state governments also provide employment to doctors. Medical colleges and training institutions also employ various doctors for purposes of teaching and research. The industrial sector, too, requires many doctors. 

The Employees State Insurance Corporation, with its branch hospitals and dispensaries all over the country, provides medical aid and financial assistance to industrial workers in case of sickness, maternity, accidents and other such conditions. 

Similarly, municipalities, cantonment boards, charitable institutions, missions and other local bodies also employ doctors on a large scale. Doctors with MD/MS degrees can get posted in district hospitals, community health centers and Employees State Insurance Scheme hospitals, while doctors without a postgraduate degree can rise to become Senior Medical officers. 

Medical Services of the army, navy and air force, under the Ministry of Defense, offer excellent employment opportunities to doctors as well as other paramedical personnel. Doctors in the Armed Forces are taken on as Commissioned Officers, with a high status, associated with gazetted Group `A' posts. Preference, however, is given to students passing out of the Armed Forces Medical College Pune, for employment in the Army Medical Corps. 

With a large number of doctors establishing their practice in urban areas, rural areas remain backward in terms of medical facilities. These areas have ample scope for registered general practitioners to set up their own clinics.

Future Prospects

Doctors are in heavy demand, in the rural as well as in the urban areas of the country, as well as abroad. With the unfortunate increase in the number of diseases and ailments due to the urbanized environment and changed lifestyles, the demand for medical specialists has increased tremendously. 

More and more medical academic institutions are offering an increased variety of specializations in the medical sciences. Lately, a large number of private hospitals and health care centers have been established in the country, that are well equipped to provide cost-effective health care of international standards. 

These hospitals provide employment to a large number of specialists in various fields of medicine.

RELATED CAREERS

Paramedical services, nursing, traditional systems of medicine.

Pressures

A doctor's work is usually quite taxing, since it involves long and irregular hours of work. A doctor can be called for an emergency any time of the day or night. A doctor is also expected to possess a strong sense of responsibility because, very often, the patient's life depends entirely on doctor.