Continues from We don’t chase perfection. We manage the curve. — if you haven’t read that yet, start there.
What do we know now that we did not four years ago?
A bit of background first.
The long road
Becoming a doctor in India is a long, hard path. It begins with rigorous preparation while one is still in school. Then comes a fiercely competitive entrance exam — fewer than 1 in 20 get a seat.
The undergraduate years are no gentler. An MBBS takes 5.5 years. From a government college, the cost is still broadly reasonable. From a private college, it can be ten times higher. Many students take education loans. They leave with degrees — and with debt — before they have earned a proper livelihood.
That is only the beginning.
Almost every graduate sits the exams for a postgraduate seat. Roughly 1 in 3 succeed. Most of those who do not keep attempting, while working as a general practitioner or a resident medical officer. So while one in three fresh MBBS graduates continue formal training, most of the rest keep studying on the side — year after year — for another chance.
Why? Pure economics. Specialisation pays more.
The entry funnel
Put simply, the funnel looks like this:
- 1 in 3 enter postgraduate programmes
- Most of the rest keep studying and re-attempting, with a job on the side
- A small minority are willing and able to start building a career
That last group is already thin before Trini enters the picture. It is where a clinic like ours begins to look for partners — and it is smaller than we once assumed.
In the next post, we turn to the market these doctors enter: the rules that muddle it, the signals patients trust, and the quieter set of physicians who might actually share Trini’s outlook.
Previous: We don’t chase perfection. We manage the curve.
Next: What we know now: who might align with Trini — the market, the middle of the curve, and why the pool stays small.
Have questions about this topic?
Talk to our doctors