After working as a doctor at a top hospital in Shanghai for almost six years, Jon Liang finally had enough. Liang, 32, threw in the towel last year, opting to become a salesman for a foreign pharmaceutical company.
The reason for his change of heart was mainly his low monthly salary, about 4,000 yuan (HK$4,900), barely enough to cover living expenses in Shanghai, much less raise a family. But his decision was also helped by a growing divide between doctors and patients that turned violent in a string of attacks on doctors at work over the past couple of years.
'My wife is also a doctor,' he said. 'It is impossible for us to survive in Shanghai if both of us are doctors.'
The departure of Liang, once a top medical student with dreams of helping rehabilitate people with crippling injuries, is not a unique case among young doctors on the mainland. More and more are trading in their white coats for white-collar jobs.
Some of the ire and distrust among patients seems to be directed at doctors who prescribe excessive drugs and tests, or whom patients believe have misdiagnosed them.
Liang said he physically fought twice with patients and their families during his nearly six years as a doctor.