DOCTORS’ LOUNGE
(continued from page 35)
happened. Eons ago as a third year medical
student I had met the Chairman of Surgery
on clinical rounds. In the relaxed banter
that always took place in Sister’s office at
the conclusion of rounds, I assumed that
he was joking when he offered his opinion
that the practice of medicine used to be the
province of young gentlemen of means….
that families were proud to support their
physician offspring during their entire lifetime of practice of the noble profession….
that nowadays not only were medical students coming from families without means
but that they expected the profession to
provide them with a living. “That damned
war (WWII) had destroyed everything.” (He
was deadly serious.)
rapid upheaval, circumstances will change
and expectations with them. That is all we
can expect.
Note: Dr. Amin is a retired diagnostic
radiologist.
Whether slowly and insidiously or in
MORE ON MORONS (AND
THEIR LEGISLATIVE
MISADVENTURES)
Gordon R. Tobin, MD
I
n the September editorial, “Show Me
the Morons,” Dr. Mary Barry correctly
condemns Missouri legislators for their
ill-advised law allowing rural practice immediately after medical school graduation
without any residency training whatsoever,
and she illustrates the dangers that poses to
patients. That “Missouri mistake,” however,
is but a symptom of a far greater legislative
misadventure by the U.S. Congress nearly
20 years ago, which remains uncorrected to
this day. An irrational approach to federal
deficits generated the Balanced Budget Act
of 1997, which created several health system
nightmares. These includ H H