Doctors practising in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities feel that they are in a continuous state of siege to such an extent that some of them would like their children to adopt any other profession but their own.

"I don't want my children to be doctors anymore!" This was what well-known infertility specialist, Dr Aniruddh S Malpani, said in Mumbai last week. He was launching a new novel titled, In the Pink of Wealth, by Sumit Ghoshal.

"My parents were doctors, and I was quite happy to be one," said Dr Malpani. "Today's doctors are no longer in control of decisions that they take on behalf of their patients. But, with the advent of health insurance and third-party payment systems, the doctor is not only answerable to the patient, but also to some bureaucrats or administrators representing the health insurance company."

Echoing these sentiments, Dr S V Dagaokar, former vice-president of the Maharashtra Medical Council, also observed that doctors in practice nowadays are under a tremendous amount of pressure from various quarters.

Dr Dagaokar also said that doctors are needed in much larger numbers than what are being produced in the country. "For a population of over 10 million in Mumbai, we have just about 24,000 practising medicos; it is not a large number by any means."

These are also some of the aspects of the medical profession, which have been highlighted in the novel In the Pink of Wealth, said Ghoshal talking about his work. Many of the episodes in the novel were drawn from real incidents that happened in different hospitals in the city of Mumbai at different times, he said.