Continues from What we know now: the long road into medicine — if you haven’t read that yet, start there.
So where do doctors typically start, once they clear that long funnel?
A muddled market
The market they enter is confused. Regulators cannot quite decide whether a doctor is a professional in a free market, or a noble figure engaged in social work.
Doctors may charge fees that are “reasonable.” They may take commissions for referrals and for prescribing tests. They may not advertise.
Patients, meanwhile, look for “good doctors” — and “good” is often subjective. One popular signal is the number of letters after a name. The more, the better. That is also why a postgraduate degree feels like the bare minimum.
For a fresh graduate hoping to start alone, the barrier is high. Almost all join an institution instead — an assured path to financial stability.
After a few years
Now shift the lens. Look at general physicians who have withstood the pulls and pressures after graduation, and who have a few years of experience behind them.
Most want an honest livelihood. Money matters. It does not — for them — outrank duty to patients. That is the middle of the normal curve.
A smaller minority devote their lives to serving patients. That is the leading tail.
Many in the middle still stay with institutions. The pressures around them soften with time, but they do not disappear.
Who might align with Trini
These are the doctors who might share Trini’s mission and vision.
The population is small. The pulls and pressures, though quieter, remain.
Four years ago, we assumed finding such people would not be difficult. We know better now. The funnel is narrow long before we meet anyone. Alignment is not a box we tick once. It is something we have to manage — carefully, repeatedly — as we walk this path.
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