Published in the New York Times (Western Edition),
Wednesday, December 3, 1997, page A27:
"Health Care for Patients - Not Corporate Profit:
A Call to Action."
"We are California physicians, nurses and allied health professionals
from across the spectrum of our professions. We serve patients rich and
poor, in hospitals and clinics, private offices and HMOs, public agencies,
community settings and academia.
Doctors and nurses are being prodded by threats and bribes to abdicate
allegiance to patients, and to shun the sickest, who may be unprofitable.
The primacy of the patient yields to a perverse accountability - to investors,
to bureaucrats, to insurers and to employers. And patients worry that their
doctor's or nurse's judgment and advice are guided by the corporate bottom
line.
We warn that the changes afoot push nursing and medicine further
from caring, fairness and efficiency. We find common ground on:
Medicine and nursing must not be diverted from their primary tasks:
the relief of suffering, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the
promotion of health. The efficient deployment of resources is critical,
but must not detract from these goals.
Pusuit of corporate profit and personal fortune has no place in
care giving.
Potent financial incentives that reward overcare or undercare weaken
doctor - patient and nurse - patient bonds, and should be prohibited. Similarly,
business arrangements that allow corporations and employers to control
the care of patients should be proscribed.
A patient's right to a physician, nurse or other health care professional
of choice must not be curtailed.
Access to health care must be the right of all.
We have petitioned our Governor, Legislature and Attorney General for a
moratorium on for-profit takeovers of hospitals, insurance plans, HMOs,
physicians' practices and other health care institutions.
We invite public endorsement of this Call by doctors, nurses, allied
health professionals, and professional and consumer groups."
(Followed by over 500 names of physicians and allied professionals.)
California Physicians Alliance
560 20th Street
Oakland, CA, 94612
Phone: 510/832-7134
Fax: 510/832-7110
e-mail: CAPA@jps.net
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For further Information and Feedback:
e-mail: frensasc@ix.netcom.com
John H. Frenster, M.D.
Physicians' Educational Series
247 Stockbridge Avenue
Atherton, CA 94027-5446
Phone: 650/367-6483
FAX: 650/364-1773
clinicalfreedom: "the ability of the patient and the physician
to do all that is medically necessary without interference."