Money
How long does it take for doctors to recover the cost of medical studies?
Summary
Their earnings depend on factors such as specialization during postgraduation and hospitals where they work.They were recognized as covid warriors during the pandemic, for fighting to save lives sometimes at the cost of their own. It is a noble profession but becoming a doctor is no easy feat. The journey is costly and the duration very long. It takes a minimum of three years to get a degree in India. But, engineering courses take up four years and medical studies even more. They last five-and-a-half years, including a year of internship. One can register as a doctor and start practising right after completing MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery). But most medicos then prefer to do their postgraduation—either MS (master of surgery) or MD (doctor of medicine), specializing in a chosen field for a period of three years. Some doctors also have to mandatorily enrol for rural service, either for one or two years, before their postgraduation. This implies that their careers can take off only after a minimum 10 years once they gain admission to a medical college.
The costs involved in becoming a doctor in India is huge. Yet, it largely depends on the institution from where they pursue their studies: Government, quasi-government, private colleges or deemed universities. Getting admissions is dependent on the scores obtained in the medical entrance exam (national eligibility cum entrance test, or NEET). The fees for MBBS can range from ₹5,000 a year in government colleges to more than ₹20 lakh in private colleges and even higher in deemed varsities. The fees for postgraduation studies are on similar lines and it also varies, depending on the specialization course. The fee structure is different for doctors pursuing higher studies abroad.
A doctor’s earnings largely depends on the specialization course, the hospital where they work —government or private hospitals and clinics (in case of private practice)— and the town or city they are located in.
Mint spoke with some doctors to understand what it takes to be a medico, including the costs and how much time it took them to recover the costs.
Government colleges
Dr. G Praneeth Kumar Reddy, 36, says he didn’t have to spend much for his medical education. It started with two years of coaching classes in 2002. NEET was not in place then (it started in 2013), but there were state entrance exams. He paid ₹70,000 to a coaching institute.
Reddy says he got admission in 2004 to the government medical college in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, where the annual fees was just ₹10,000. So, his total course fee came to ₹50,000. He drew a stipend of ₹10,000 per month during internship. Additionally, Reddy had to bear living and food costs of ₹5,000 per month ( ₹60,000 per annum) since he didn’t stay in a hostel. “I avoided hostel and preferred an accommodation outside. If I had opted for the hostel, the costs would have been much less as I would have only needed to pay for the mess fees," he says. By the time he graduated, Reddy had spent a total of ₹3 lakh.
After MBBS, Reddy spent two years preparing for entrance exams again, this time for postgraduate studies, from 2010 to 2012. He paid ₹20,000 for six months of coaching classes in Bangalore and spent ₹30,000 on living and food costs. He cracked the exams in 2012 and got admission to MS orthopaedics at government medical college in Kurnool, which is also his hometown. He says the benefit of getting into a government college is that fees are minimal. “We just had to pay the joining fees, which was ₹5,000," he says.
Reddy says he had to intern in the college over the three years, and drew a stipend of ₹25,000 per month in first year, ₹26,000 per month in second year and ₹27,000 per month in the third year. So, during his MD course, he received ₹9.36 lakh.
In 2015, Reddy did a one-year senior residency in Kurnool Medical College. From 2016 to 2022, he worked as an assistant professor in orthopaedics at a private medical college. He is now an assistant professor at Kurnool Medical College, where he also treats patients.
He says his overall costs worked out to ₹6.25 lakh. This also included ₹1.5 lakh spent on medical books,. He recovered the costs in just the first two-years of his MS internship.
Dr. Gurninderjeet Singh, 28, started his NEET preparation in 2010. It took him three years to clear the exam. During this time, his coaching classes at Helix Institute in Chandigarh cost him ₹1.5 lakh per annum, besides ₹7,000 per month on expenses including food.
Singh got a seat in Sri Guru Ram Das University of Health Sciences in Amritsar, a quasi-government college. Here, his course fee was ₹3.5 lakh per year. So, he ended up paying ₹17,50,000 for the five-and-a-half years. Additionally, he paid ₹5 lakh in hostel and mess fees over his stay at the college campus.
Since 2020, he has been working as a medical officer at a Civil Hospital at Nawanshahr, Punjab. Singh now wants to move to US where his wife is working. He has started preparing for USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination), which would allow him to practice in US and also get his postgraduate degree there. USMLE, which involves four examinations, can cost over $4,300 ( ₹3.5 lakh).The course material costs around $700. Another requirement is work experience of at least 2-3 months before one can enrol for residency at a medical college. Singh says this would cost $1,500-3,000 per month. So, a three-month experience could cost anywhere between $4,500 and $9,000.
In the US, there are no fees for pursuing postgraduate studies. So, once he gets his residency, Singh can start earning even while pursuing his three-years of MD in internal medicine (the course that he prefers to study). He expects that it would take at least five years of practice in the US to recover all the costs.
Private colleges
Dr. Ashwajit Singh, 28, started preparing for NEET in 2011, which cost him ₹4 lakh over two years. This included ₹2 lakh as tuition fees for three subjects (physics, chemistry, and biology) and the remaining on car fuel spent on reaching multiple coaching centres.
He did his MBBS from a private medical college in Ludhiana, where he paid ₹30 lakh as fees. As an intern, in his final year, he got a stipend of ₹1.08 lakh ( ₹9,000 per month). In 2020, he got admission for MD dermatology under the NRI quota in a deemed university in Karnataka. The course fee was ₹1.8 crore.
Singh, whose education costs totalled more than ₹2.14 crore, says it would take him 10 years to recover all the costs. He says the only advantage is that he is a second-generation dermatologist. “My father already has a clinical set-up, which includes all the necessary equipment. If I had to start from scratch, it would have set me down by another ₹2 crore or thereabouts," he says.
While the number of MBBS seats has increased in India over the years, there is still stiff competition to get into reputed colleges for undergraduate and postgraduate course. The preparation for medical studies starts early and the costs are very high. Experts say it is important to start saving and investing for these expenses early on. “Given the huge costs of medical studies, including NEET coaching, a well-laid financial plan can help meet these expenses, " says Tivesh Shah, founder of Tru-Worth Finsultants.
