Stand and Deliver

At media events in four locations on Feb. 10, neurosurgeons and their colleagues in other specialties stood up for themselves and for their patients to focus the media’s attention on Protect Patients Now, the public information campaign for federal medical liability reform produced by the specialty coalition, Doctors for Medical Liability Reform.

The message they delivered: “We have left our surgical theaters and delivery rooms for one reason: to ensure that other doctors will not have to leave theirs forever.”

National Press Club—Washington, D.C.
“Clearly this crisis calls for an organization with both the will and the way to speak out for Americans who are deprived of access to critically needed healthcare. We stand before you as representatives of that organization, ready to wage what will surely be a lengthy battle, but convinced that we and our patients will ultimately prevail, if only because it is the only outcome that is tolerable.”

—Gail Rosseau, MD, Protect Patients Now campaign spokesperson

National Press Club—Washington, D.C.
“There is only one beneficiary to the current system: the guy who walks away with 30 to 50 percent of the award, plus an additional percentage to cover expenses. That’s not the doctor. And it’s certainly not the patient. Yet there are those who continue to insist that there is no cause and effect between the increase in medical liability litigation and the subsequent rise in medical liability insurance rates that are driving doctors out of business and bankrupting America’s healthcare system.”

—Stewart B. Dunsker, MD, chair of Doctors for Medical Liability Reform and president of Neurosurgeons to Preserve Health Care Access

Press Conference—Raleigh, N.C.

“Like most Americans, we believe that a wrongful or neglectful medical event should result in fair awards. It’s the unreasonable, lottery-style awards for pain and suffering—enriching personal injury attorneys with millions of dollars—that are forcing good doctors to give up the work they love and putting patients at risk of having no access to healthcare.”

—James R. Bean, MD, secretary-treasurer of Neurosurgeons to Preserve Health Care Access

Press Conference-Charlotte, N.C.

“In North Carolina, more than 3,000 doctors and hospitals are scrambling to get new coverage and, if they can find it, pay two to three times more than a year ago. Or leave. The citizens of North Carolina cannot afford to lose any more of their doctors; this is why we are here—to tell your story and demand reform.”

—Craig Van Der Veer, MD, a neurosurgeon in private practice in Charlotte, N.C.

Press Conference—Seattle, Wash.

“This time there were nine other neurosurgeons in the same boat and that meant a lot more patients were going to be adversely affected. Literally hundreds of new patients—some of them in a great deal of pain—had to be turned away from our offices all over town. No operations were scheduled. At different times over a period of three weeks the emergency rooms at Northwest, Swedish, Ballard, Providence, Stevens, and Valley were intermittently without neurosurgical coverage, and on one fateful weekend, none of them had any neurosurgical coverage.”

—Christopher Smythies, MD, describes to reporters the ripple effect resulting from one frivolous lawsuit filed against him for which he eventually was exonerated completely. He said that, due in large part to the $550,000 in legal fees paid for his defense, his entire group of 10 neurosurgeons lost liability insurance coverage for six weeks, even though the group’s claims history was a good one.

“Saying ‘no’ to treating patients is not natural for doctors. It goes against every moral and professional fiber in us. I had to consider moving my family to another state. This all took an incredible toll on me and on my family and patients.”

—Steve Klein, MD, pictured here in the “Don’t Get Sick in Washington” newsmagaziine, told reporters of his reaction when his entire 10-neurosurgeon group lost its liability insurance coverage.

“People are dying because of politics. Not because we don’t have the technology, not because we don’t have the doctors, but because astronomical medical liability insurance rates are taking doctors away from our patients at an alarming rate.”

]]>