There are so many errors and distortions and outright dishonesty in this artitcle that one barely knows where to begin. I delivered babies (obstetrics) and did gynecologic surgery for over 26 years and would like to offer a few comments. 1. "healthcare spending reached $1.6 trillion in 2003. Considering this enormous expenditure we should have the best medicine in the world." We do. For Cancer, Heart attacks and premature babies (brain and survival) we are best and get handed some very tough patients, ie obese,uneducated, HIV positive, cocaine using, etc who get pregnant unlike say Holland or Norway where they are fairly clean, educated, take their vits, come for visits, etc. 2. "medicine is in need of complete and total reform'..Medicine operates at such a higher level than the rest of society that it takes my breath away. Who is going to supervise this reform, the post office, government bureaucrats? the people who ran Amtrak and the Vietnam war? 3. "powerful pharm companies....special interest groups.....with deep pockets they entice scientists...." You can just feel the liberals' hatred for these people. My young uncle died at home in the 1920's from diphtheria, choking to death in front of his parents. Tuberculosis killed as many as cancer kills today. At the time of the Civil War 5% of women died in childbirth (at 4 million births today that would be 200,000 dead instead of several hundred). In 1900, the average American woman died around 45 years old (she didn't live long enough to worry about menopause) instead of almost 80 today. Remember the thousands who died of Polio and the ironlungs? The people in the Drug companies do a lot more to make ours lives better than the lawyer -politicians ever will. 4. Re: med mistakes, " a great deal of sweeping under the rug....no Grand Rounds on medical errors, no sharing of failures..." In every hospital I have worked in there were conferences and grand rounds to investigate in detail, (in front of everyone,docotrs, nurses, hosp people, other experts, etc.) what happened and how to prevent it. Every Cesarian section is reviewed, every uterus is checked to see is it was appropriate to remove, every time pitocin is used to stimulate labor it is reviewed by a committees (of doctors, nurses, hospital people, etc). Are the authors of this article in an alternate reality or is their burning desire for socialised medicine blinding them to the reality of modern day medicine? (I guess our farms will be so much better after they collectivize them.) I trained 14 years (after high school) to be a doctor. It is so long and hard and grueling. I worked 60 to 80 to 100 hours a week as an obstetrician to be of service to my patients, including the poor and illegal aliens. The average OBGYN probably SAVES about 500 lives (babies in distress, women hemorhaging, infections, cancer and precancer, ruptured ectopic (tubal) pregnnacies, etc). They do a lot more good for society than most people, esp the slip and fall lawyers who are heroes to the liberals, the democrat's biggest source of money, and are in the process of destroying the best medical system in the world. robin
Paragraphs are our friend. :-)
"every time pitocin is used to stimulate labor it is reviewed by a committees (of doctors, nurses, hospital people, etc)"
I have never heard of this. Are you saying that hospitals regularly review use of pitocin? This sounds hard to believe.
Hey, Doc, please learn to post paragraphs. You are writing what could be an informative comment here, not a prescription. :)
"The average OBGYN probably SAVES about 500 lives..."
The average abortion is performed by an OBGYN. Perhaps we should talk about "net" lives saved or lost.
FWIW my daughter who wants to be an MD works in one of the local hospital(s) ER. She has only lost one patient as an EMT in over two years. Pretty impressive as far as I am concerned considering the gambit of what humans do to themselves. The head ER Doc is a Viet Nam MASH guy. I trust him implicitly - and have had to on two separate occasions. He has saved both my older daughter and myself from nasty things and I honestly believe that we would both be dead if it happened 20 years ago.
Thanks again!