Health Care, Medical Education, Doctors and Society: A Changing Landscape

The relationship between doctors, patients and society has undergone a profound transformation in recent decades. Once rooted in deep trust, surrender and mutual respect, it is now increasingly shaped by consumerism, commercialisation and unrealistic expectations from modern medicine. Simultaneously, medical education in India has experienced extensive expansion but also dilution in quality, contributing to a visible decline in skills, attitudes and ethics among healthcare professionals. This reflection examines the sociocultural, educational and systemic forces responsible for this shift and highlights the urgent need for meaningful reforms in both healthcare delivery and medical education to restore trust, ethics and excellence.