Med Schools: Four That Flunk

Hartford Courant ^ | 6-29-03 | By JACK DOLAN And ANDREW JULIEN, Courant Staff Writers

[nuconvert]

Med Schools: Four That Flunk June 29, 2003 By JACK DOLAN And ANDREW JULIEN, Courant Staff Writers

Idaho regulators investigating complaints involving 12 patients revoked Dr. Brent E. Woodfield's license after concluding that he didn't understand "the basic principles of the practice of medicine."

For Dr. Anacleto Capua, accused of misdiagnosing fatal conditions in three patients, refresher medical courses were recommended by Florida authorities concerned about his medical skills.

Hitting the books might have helped Dr. Narpat Panwar, who flunked the U.S. medical licensing exam seven times before passing - only to be accused later in New York of botching a childbirth so badly the newborn suffered brain damage.

Besides a slippery grasp of the basics, these physicians share another bond: They graduated from a handful of medical schools that produce troubled doctors at about 10 times the rate of the best schools, an eight-month Hartford Courant investigation has found.

The schools - the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico, Howard University in Washington, Manila Central University in the Philippines and Meharry Medical College in Nashville - ranked at the bottom in separate analyses of three databases containing records of disciplinary actions against thousands of physicians across the United States.

[lizma]

Too many of us are tired of excuses for shoddiness, nonexistent academic performance, barely functional illiteracy, sky high illegitimacy, hugely disproportionate crime rates......and now, excuses for turning out "doctors" by the bucketful who'll kill you as soon as bill you.

I think your right. It's not attitudes that have done this to them, it's government handouts and victimhood propaganda.

My hope is that the rats set these people free as they scamper for the Hispanic vote.

[crazykatz]

I am a well educated older woman. I dress nicely and do wear SPANDEX, etc.(LOL). Nobody would confuse with any of the trailer-trash that apears so often on Jerry Springer!!

I speak clearly and I use correct grammar. While I am a Southerner, I have a very slight accent. I do not say, "ya'll" or drop my 'G's. I never say things like "honey child" or "ain't".

At any rate, I was forced by a sudden illness to go to an emergency room at a very nice hospital in Jacksonville, Fl.

The attending physician, a woman from INDIA, who could barely speak English, was slighly rude to me. She was not friendly and never once made eye contact with me.

She then handed me a prescription and further instructions for my care, and asked me very rudely,

"DO YOU KNOW HOW TO READ?".

I told her that my family had been reading and writing English, BEFORE her ancestors ever knew there was such a place as England!

She just stared at me... finally making eye contact. She just continued to explain, in her very poor English, the treatment plan... which I had great difficulty understanding.

Just give me an American Doc... I don't trust INDIANS at all.

[nuconvert]

Strange, isn't it? Our American schools are so bogged down with med student applications that they only accept the top students from pre-med programs. Yet when you go to a hospital, it seems (depending on where you live) that 30% of the Dr's are foreign. The US schools are preventing US students from becoming Drs, so there's enough room in the system for foreign docs. Makes NO sense. If THAT many foreigners can get jobs as drs, we're not letting enough of our own students get into Med schools.

[appeal2]

Reminds me of that old joke, "What do you call the guy who graduated last from his medica school class?"


Doctor!!!

[RightOnline]

What really chaps my hide about this is the fact that the average, hard working black or Hispanic would be well and truly pissed off with this. I don't believe for a second that most "minorities" want to be treated like helpless children, and I can't help but think that stories like this absolutely infuriate them. Face it....................after reading this, wouldn't you be seriously tempted to ask any black doctor where he went to med school?? That can't be good for blacks, that can't be good (or necessarily fair) to black medical practitioners......and it's these ridiculous, social-engineering programs that have created this mess.

Affirmative action, or anything resembling it, HAS to go if minorities are to be truly viewed the way they want to be viewed in our society. Schools that cater to minorities (I don't even believe in that concept; find it insulting as hell) should have HIGHER standards. Blacks 40 or 50 years ago understood this. No longer. It's time for minority communities to start challenging themselves.

[friendly]

Our American schools are so bogged down with med student applications that they only accept the top students from pre-med programs. Yet when you go to a hospital, it seems (depending on where you live) that 30% of the Dr's are foreign. The US schools are preventing US students from becoming Drs, so there's enough room in the system for foreign docs. Makes NO sense. If THAT many foreigners can get jobs as drs, we're not letting enough of our own students get into Med schools.

There are plenty of US docs, just not in the ERs and clinics.

The top undergraduate students have however gone into other fields (business, law), so that now 50% of the med school classes are women, up from 5% 25 years ago. Women who (wisely in my view) simply don't work as hard, take vacations, don't do 70 hour weeks, drop out to have kids, etc.

The new docs graduating are simply not as intelligent as the graduates of 25 years ago, in my experience. It is hard to imagine how bad American graduates of these Mexican and other third world hell-hole medical schools must be.

[CatoRenasci]

Must be a recent thing. Thirty years ago, or so, I had a surgery performed by a Pakistani surgeon at our local hospital. My own general practitioner, who had been a first rate surgeon when he was younger, told me he had high confidence in the fellow. The surgeon was excellent, and as I got to know him during my recovery, he turned out to be a charming, well-educated fellow as well. Although he spoke with an accent (rather more Cambridge than anything else), his English was completely fluent and easily understood. He was a fixture in our community for many years until retiring a few years ago.

[dljordan]

I know. I used to laugh at the antics going on over at Meharry. Losing corpses, embezzlement, fraud and last but not least discrimination against white folk (even though they were paying the bills). A real circus.

[dljordan]

Notice that they just couldn't bring themselves to say INCOMPETENT. More liberal newsspeak.

[albee]

>Right On, Line!

[nuconvert]

Well, I don't know. There are an awful lot of specialists from S. America in Florida. I'm wondering if they're taking jobs from potential U.S. dr's. because the med schools here make it so difficult to get in, limiting the number of American drs graduating.

[nuconvert]

Pobably right about schools not changing much. But they ARE adding a pracitcal exam. I can't believe they haven't done that all along. That should weed out the totally incompetent. (hopefully)

[HardStarboard]

Uhhhh...let me guess.

They turn out the Medical School equivalents to Jayson Blair in the journalism field?

How'd I do?

[nuconvert]

I believe it is a more recent phenomenon. I too can remember Indian and Egyptian Drs from 15-20yrs that I would highly recommend.

[gcruse]

You done good. Your prize is an appointment with one of these bozos first thing in the morning.

[nuconvert]

Let's give them some credit for doing the investigation and writing the article. They didn't try to cover-up the fact that the 2 U.S. schools were predominantly black.

[ValenB4]

Yikes. A nasty consequence of affirmative action. I'm just glad my school isn't on that list. Whew! :)

[Cathryn Crawford]

I'm glad it isn't, too!

[Think free or die]

Very disturbing report. We encountered an outrageously incompetent ER doctor at a seashore hospital in NJ a few years ago when our then 3-year old son suddenly developed severe pain in his hip. We quickly decided to cut short our trip and took him to the ER at Philadelphia's Childrens' Hospital. It was a night and day difference in basic competence. The useless ER doc at the shore was from somewhere in Africa, barely spoke English, and appeared to know very little about much of anything. It is an outrage that people like this are permitted to practice medicine. It's a violation of the public trust.

[nuconvert]

Agree. To make matters worse, the AMA and state med. boards are disgustingly slow at getting rid of incompetent Drs.