Table 1. Details of Data Collection.

Profile of Study Participants
Total	N = 27a
Education	Allopathic undergraduate degree: 22, Post-graduate degree: 5
Gender	Male: 23, Female: 4
Age	Average age of participants: 39.2 Less than 25 years of age: 4 25-45 years of age:16 More than 45 years of age: 7
Years of experience	Average years of experience of participants: 12.1 Less than 5 years of experience: 6 5-15 years of experience:12 More than 15 years of experience: 9
Place of work	Higher tiers of the system: 5b Primary health centers – easy to access (less than 10 km from state highway): 9 Primary health centers – remote (more than 10 km from state): 13
Key themes in the topic guide Doctor’s roles at the primary health centers Doctors professional goals and dreams Stories about their best experiences at the primary health center (while implementing programs or doing outpatient care) Stories about challenging experiences and circumstances Stories about professional colleagues in other places Examples of situations that doctors faced day-to-day and how they dealt with these Doctors’ position in the organizational hierarchy and relationships (stories or experiences pertaining to interactions with seniors) Doctors’ relationships with support staff (examples of interactions with support staff) Doctors’ relationships with patients and the community (examples of interactions with the community)

^aWe do not have the demographics of two doctors.

^bThese doctors had experience and knowledge about primary care and discussions with them helped to illustrate differences in work roles between peripheral and higher levels of the public system.