During NMA
NEC in kaduna this week, we must begin to address some of the internal NMA
issues inthe strategic plan 2017 -2022 such as strengthening the NM Secretariat
- making it professionally run even if it means brininging in non doctor
experts. We are good at being doctors and dentists but we can learn a thing
from
professionals who run 'business'. NMA is sitting in water and soap is
entering its eyes - the mantra is always 'no money, no money' yet our sister
organisations elsewhere are among the richest professional Associations.
Doctor
kidnapping, assault, and other harassments are increasing every day in our
country - Does the NMA secretariat track the incidents and our joint reaction
to the incidents?. I am sure great efforts are being made b all concerned but
one feels that a lot more can be done to protect doctors as they protect
patients ( Clinical Governance).
Courtesy of
Doximity, we share this piece just as NMA is hosted by Kaduna state branch, to
let us know that doctors everywhere are facing unwarranted harassment. The NMA
belongs to WMA and CMA , can we lead action to address this global menace of
doctors?: READ ON
' The
Moral Assassination of Physicians Must Stop
KevinMD · July 26, 2017Original Article
By Michael
Weiss
napocska/Shutterstock.com
As a
physician, all the mounting negative news I read about doctors can’t help but
hit me straight in the gut. This is especially true when reading about a tragic
murder of a sweet and highly dedicated 32-year-old physician, Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee
Tam and the serious injuries to five other physicians on June 30th at NYC’s
Bronx Lebanon Hospital. Can you blame me for advocating for my esteemed
colleagues? Everybody’s “Lives” seem to “matter” — what about physicians’
lives?
Don’t the
ones who dedicate their own lives to saving others at least deserve to have
their own lives matter? Seems not. Those who would benefit from the
ever-growing imperfections and corruptions in health care the most, are the
ones who can never succeed without a “fall guy (or gal)” who are usually
doctors. So for a while now, I did the old fashioned “follow the money trail”
analysis when I read any article involving just how bad, dishonest, corrupt and
rich doctors are. The worse the stories are, the more deceitful the motives and
true crimes they hide to blind the public and protect the real culprits.
Yet, it’s
good for “them” to make our nation’s physicians look bad and disrespect them in
every way they can — even in this tragic event where Tracy’s name or story is
hardly mentioned.
Where’s the
courageous investigative reporting curiosity to learn more about such a
dedicated and loving young physician? I think she deserves a front-page Time
cover with “Are we Murdering our Doctors?” or “Cream of Crop Physician Murdered
in Cold Blood: Where Have We Gone Wrong? ” at the very least.
Where’s any
notion of a human-interest story about a genuine and dedicated hero to our
profession?
Perhaps
Hippocrates (who as of late, physicians are encouraged to shun) answered this
2,400 years ago when he wrote: ”Wherever the art of medicine is loved, here is
also a love of humanity.”
I’m not a
PI, former military or conspiratorial type. In fact, I have over 30 years of
looking at the “heart of the matter” experience — I’m a cardiologist in North
Jersey and love my job. I write about this because literally “enough is enough”
and no one seems to be speaking out.
I thank God
how “fake news” is finally starting to be unmasked for the very real dangers it
creates. I can remember at least the last 10 years of “fake news” going
unquestioned and being authoritarian (government and corporate supported — this
is hopefully changing slowly, not without conflicts as is expected). It’s just
that I can no longer stand by quietly and let one of its greatest victims —
physicians — be silenced or forgotten. Did anyone look up the salaries and
bonuses of large fake media outlets employees or their owners who make
multi-billion to trillion dollars lying to you every single day? If a doctor
mistakenly over charges or is caught lying, that physician can be prosecuted
and most often jailed. Why the double standards? No question just like any
other human beings there are greedier and more desperate physicians. But why do
they have to be the scapegoats for the real gougers of our society? Are these
“financial winners” the ones who take 24-hour calls or do charitable care and
save lives? I guess doctors are too busy, flooded with toxic administrative
demands, and dedicated taking care of everyone else; especially those in
private practice that they make easy and convenient “fake news” and
scapegoating targets. If a news reporter is insulted there’s always a big
commotion yet when a doctor is killed? Cold silence. Just read the “lack” of
Tracy’s tragic murder coverage. It’s almost like that wasn’t even relevant to
the story.
I lost it
when reading about a former, disgruntled, Lebanon NYC physician, who was living
in a homeless shelter (so much for “rich” doctors) who was obviously not
dealing with a full deck, returned after being fired to kill the wrong
physician and injured seven others. Suddenly, the story continued to unfurl.
Nothing or
very little was said about a sweet innocent angelic young doctor whose family
emigrated to our shores for hope of a better life and who was just working
someone else shift, filling in out of kindness rewarded by being the victim of
the death bullet only a few days before we celebrated July 4th. No, instead,
all the focus centered around a “crazed physician” and greedy doctors who were
getting $60 for each new patient (to bump Medicaid payments by the state) by a
dishonest CEO whose income and bonuses in the millions the media chose to
somehow highlight these greedy doctors otherwise known as medical scapegoating.
Are you supposed to believe that $60 for each new patient they brought to the
hospital would make them rich? You can make more money working part time as a
janitor, nurse’s aide or just parking cars? So that’s the money trail and the
truth the fake news finds unworthy of mention.
That’s how
the art of scapegoating partnered with fake news keeps the public in the dark
while the real criminals go unmentioned, unscathed and continue their crimes.
I would like
to see a formal apology to the family of Dr. Tan from all the beneficiaries of
this corrupt institution and their beneficiaries (I noted) and generously
compensate her family. In addition, we need to pass a “Physician’s Bill of
Rights and Protection” the Dr. Tracy Tam bill. In addition to so many being
murdered, overworked and abused, their burnout and suicide rates are one of the
highest in our nation.
It’s time to
stop physician bullying and mistreatment by our government, health insurers,
others and stop scapegoating them at every single opportunity. Dr. Tam deserved
better and would have wanted that for herself and her colleagues. What about
the working conditions that caused Dr. Bello to snap? Mayor De Blasio relegates
it as “work related violence.” If it was some guy on a military base, it would
be politically correct and blessed with intense counseling interventions to
follow. Or if it happened on campuses or anywhere else our government would
send investigators, support structures and counseling for the entire staff and
community and dedicated millions in researching just what caused such a tragic
chain of events. Perhaps even see how it could assist physicians during such
tragic times; that’s a joke, when Dr. Tan’s name is hardly even mentioned! Mark
my words there will be no such interventions — at least not benefiting
physicians. When it comes to doctors; it’s “Crazed Physician Kills Woman.”
In fact,
depicting physicians as heroes or victims and highly humanistic is never good
for fake news about us. In this story, what stands out is the actual $60 each
doctor was supposedly paid. Why don’t you arrest them all and close the
hospital? They might have if they were private practice physicians, but to
close a hospital (money trail) would mean lost megabucks for the real gougers.
Did you know that an almost majority of practices are hospital owned today? Did
you know that these hospitals are doing booming “business” (a taboo word for
doctors) expanding like there’s no tomorrow? Do you know why? Because they earn
an average of 400 to 500 percent on each physician they bought/employ who are
“commanded” to order enough CT and MRI scans, do procedures and “over utilize”
the system; lest they find another job.
From the
media outlets, I reviewed the victim was described as a ‘woman” and later “as
simply a physician.” I could find only one article dated July 1st, reported by
the New York Post that wrote anything about Dr. Tam as a human being. I was
pleased to read how this unusual media coverage perhaps represented the hope of
truth in reporting being resuscitated after all. Quoted by a “friend” as saying
this 32-year-old physician was the closest human being to an angel I have ever
met.”
This is a
moral assassination not only on physicians but on the memory of this modern-day
healing “angel,” Dr. Tracy-Sin Tam. Shame on you! Most headlines read “Crazed
Physician” not “Greedy Hospital Administrator” or “tragic loss of wonderful
young physician”? That speaks of the magnanimity of the real crimes these
headlines hide and the cold accomplices the former find in a dispassionate and
often fake news media. Though I never had the pleasure of meeting Tracy, my
heart goes out to the family who raised such a wonderful human being and hope
her inspiring memory will gradually help change the face of a sorely ailing
medical culture.
Michael
Weiss is a physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com’’
Joseph
Ana
Chairman,
NMA Clinical Governance Committee
Africa Center for Clin Gov Research &
Patient Safety
@ HRI West Africa
Group - HRI WA
Consultants in
Clinical Governance Implementation
Publisher: Health and
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