Dr Ley addresses the AMA members revolt
Dr. Rohack,
OK, I get it. During the month of August, when heated debate over health care reform is roiling our nature, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and emotions are high, we get a weekly statement from you telling us how great the Canadian system is. You had just returned from the Canadian Medical Association meeting and let us know how insulted the Canadian doctors were by characterizations of their health care system reported in this country. This is spite of countless, innumerable accounts of rationed Canadian health care, interminable waiting times for specialty care and poor outcomes. We have seen, as recently as this summer, Canadian patients coming to Jackson, Mississippi-YES, not Seattle, not Buffalo, not the Mayo Clinic, JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI!- for procedures as mundane as tonsillectomy. Yet you arrogantly believe that we physicians and surgeons, learned men and women all, will slavishly accept your solitary report as a reliable representation of how things really are in Canada. Dr. Rohack, many of us have friends who practice in Canada, and we know better. We are not stupid, sir.
Then, your next report is an account, from, of all places, El Paso, Texas, about health care disparities. Is this topic, in the current environment of debate over the very future of our profession, really so timely that it could not wait until some later date? And do you really think anyone is surprised that there are people in El Paso that may not have health care coverage? I mean, do you really think this is news to us?
So, with that in mind and as the President of the organization that CLAIMS to represents the physicians of this nation, what do you write about today? Medical education. Two days after the President of the United States unprecedentedly addresses a joint session of Congress about health care reform, you choose to write a tome about medical education. Could you think of anything more timely that you could expound upon? The people associated with the Texas A & M University Health Science Center, where I obtained my residency training in general surgery, must be God-awful embarrassed to have you let everyone know where you hail from because, by God, sir, you indeed ARE an embarrassment. The membership of your organization is in revolt, memberships are being cancelled in droves, and state associations are deunifying like falling dominoes. Grab a clue, sir?
Please, Dr. Rohack, either admit to your membership, your country, and, out of courtesy, to your employer that you are not simply a tool of the Obama administration and are just an inept, bumbling idiot, or
resign your position as President of the American Medical Association.
Sincerely,
Phillip B. Ley, MD, FACS
Jackson, Mississippi
