11/05/2026
The price we pay climbing the ranks in medicine, is becoming less and less attractive to our young doctors, I’m not sure I blame them:
�1. Missed birthdays, weddings, dinners. Years of on-calls, nights, and moving hospitals make deep relationships hard to maintain.
2.People see the title, but forget the rising debt it. University fees, exams, courses, degrees, travel, portfolio building… all while earning far less than what they could earn in banking, sales, online etc.
�3. You never actually fully switch off. Even at home, part of your mind is still in the hospital.
�4. Missing family events and family thinking you put your career above everything. Not always being there actually hurts, but they think you’re too busy. Non-medical family often don’t understand, especially when the fruits don’t reflect the labour
�5. We spend our twenties in libraries, dingy studies and on-call rooms, sitting exams well into our 30s, often without job or location stability until nearly 40.
�6. The stress, pressure, and sleep deprivation take a toll. I genuinely believe it has taken years off my life.
7. Imagine the stress of completing all that school, top of your class, flying colours, training hard after graduating, only to be told there aren’t enough training posts, or consultant jobs for your to continue what your have dedicated your life to. The resilience you need is on another level.
8. Sometimes being a black minority in surgery feels really lonely. Often misunderstood, underestimated, or stereotyped. It can get exhausting. But representation matters, so we keep going.
Behind what you see, there is always a price.
