Young Radiologists in India look for a change in employment terms-Debate

Young Indian  radiologists of today ask for change in Radiology Practise/Job Scenario in India. In India usual trend is for radiologists to work on fixed pay-scale. These are some extracts from the conversations i had on my facebook page with some colleagues. What are your thoughts on these thought provoking discussion?  Comments are welcome. 

Sumer Sethi:  lets have this discussion over here, which was my topic was the last IRIA as well. Entrepreneurship. Well we just cant blame the centre owners for shortchanging us when fault is primarily of the cut governing the market rather than quality reporting. Q1 Who owns the radiology, is it actually radiologists? Q2 who earns maximum from radiology radiologists or referring physicians or investors? Q3 This blind race of Teslas, Digital MRI, PET CT, 256 slice CT has kind of taken it away from the radiologist 1st generation entrepreneur. Does the average patient actually need these, debatable? they are better no doubt but are an high risk investment. So, my idea for the younger rads is start small and do the MRI and CT on a part time job. then gradually build momentum and put your own set up....

Sumer Sethi: Something which i wanted to voice & try in voice in IRIA, everywhere i go in India is : Radiologists should be paid as percentage of gross collection from radiology department not as fixed pay rolls. Once we become strong to accept that if work is less i take less but if it is more i ll take more and these partnership contracts should be durations like 1-3 years depending on ease of relationship like any business with exit policies defined. What i meant in my previous post was that radiologist is as important probably more important than machine while reverse is being projected in the market by lala entrepreneurs. They say we have 3 tesla, we have 256 slice while more important is the eyes who report them.

Colleague A: I totally agree with you and we must get this implemented at any cost by taking stringent initiatives.

Sumer Sethi:  there is just one policy that is required, i am f..g radiologist and i am not available for fixed payroll, u can partner with me i ll take x percentage of the collection from the radiology department and contract has to be executed legally.

Colleague A: agreed

Sumer Sethi if somehow radiologist stop being greedy of apparently fat pay package that u get after residency and learn to work for money if the centre work is low i take less but it is more i take more... also another thing, in India they bundle our reports with the cost of doing the study, while if ur doing an MRI for 6000 odd rupees that is the cost doing the scan and reporting should be charged separately and that should be our domain. It should not be assumed that if u pay 1000 Rs u have bundled doing the study with report from fixed pay radiologist included

Colleague A: There is nothing wrong in demanding a fat pay . are we inferior to any other specialities ?

Colleague A: when people can charge crores of rupees for item numbers in films what wrong are we doing by asking decent pay in this era of extreme inflation to get on with our responsibilities.

Sumer Sethi no what i mean is it is "apparently" fat pay, it is not big as compared to what the owner earns. So it should be a partnership and then u earn variable depending on business with some minimum clauses as u suggest but if ur reporting gets more business you shud the fruit of it as well.

Colleague A: The core problem is business productivity and its economics.

Sumer Sethi entertainment industry pays more than the healthcare as we are catering to sick people and item numbers are catering to majority :)))

Colleague A : I understand that we are in a service industry , that is the reason once again the managements take wrong advantage of . For them it is purely business they make money out of sick people and expect us to be only service oriented and do away with minimum hardearned compensation we deserve.

Sumer Sethi : yes that is why i stress on partnering not payroll and that is the mistake all our community has done.. if my work has made the centre progress i should be earning as a percentage not as fixed payroll... Ahamad Mastan Mukarrab more you think, more you know this is main problem, think of referring physician even they charge fixed percentage as commision not fixed payroll, only the people on fixed payrolls loose the game and radiologists should not be on fixed pay rolls.........

Sumer Sethi: even CEOs of topic companies are paid as some salary and equity, once you get paid as percentage of gross collection things will change unimaginably and u ll drive out of the centre on a beamer.. now please understand i am telling you percentage of "gross" not profit as u ll never be able to get the profit statement from these businessmen they will show you losses always and make you look like a fool... radiology reporting and radiography should be considered as a specialised job which is done as percentage of collection and we give them time as per our idea and we manage work howsoever we want to ...

Colleague A: I agree with you what if we do not get the minimum expected amount if the centre is running in a loss ? percentage share of a gross income is a good idea provided the income of the organisation is healthy

Sumer Sethi:  then u reduced your time spent on that organisation, i dont sit there whole day or for 8hours like we do if we were on payroll and work was not there but u were marking ur attendance on that idiotic finger print machine that corporates us to make us feel equal to rest of the staff, no we are not staff we are consultants and we will be flexible,..

Colleague A:  good feedback.

Sumer Sethi:  u have a long term contract and u can define exit clauses and exit the arrangement whenever, u feel they are not generating enough revenue and i am not marrying them ...

Colleague A:  choosing an organisation with healthy income or good potential will be critical in signing of the contract.

Sumer Sethi yes and that is true for any business.... if u choose a poor organisation and go for fixed payroll, i bet they will still not pay, i have seen cheques bouncing....

Colleague B:  A common consensus should b passed, say through IRIA. Strict watch and some sort of action should b taken against radiologist if he/ she found serving on fixed pay. Imaging centre/ hospital owners also need to work in accord. Only implemented rules can help us to earn what we DESERVE.

Colleague C:  Sir you could not have been more correct is assessing the whole situation i mean the bad deals we radiologists are meted out, it becomes more painful to learn WHEN IT IS DONE BY OUR FELLOW RADIOLOGISTS. Please guide us so that a common platform can be formed from where we can start a concerted effort.

Colleague A:  I need few representatives of each state voluntarily to help me in this campaign to propogate the message very clearly to such centres. please mail me the minimum benchmark for payscales, leaves , other issues , dearness alowance, health insurance and also psychological issues that arise out of such exploitation.

Colleague D: very true . there r surgeons who get cuts per surgery n physicians who get consultation fee , so it is logical and prctical that e1 radiologists should get a cut in usgs / ct / mri they report . to make it work we need to take our voice to the administration