Viewpoints: Lessons On Coping With Long Waits When Emergency Care Is Needed ‘Now’; Planned Parenthood Saves Babies, Too, So Why Close Clinics?
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care topics and others.
Stat:
When Waiting Feels Immoral: Empathy In The Emergency Department
Mr. Kane is using one hand to clutch the plastic basin into which he is vomiting and gesturing hello with the other hand when I introduce myself to him in the emergency department triage area. He has suffered from headaches ever since he had surgery for a brain mass years before. Over-the-counter medications typically control the pain. But today it feels like a hot knife behind his eyes, and he had little choice but to come to the hospital. I examine him, start treatment, and tag him for an urgent bed in the main emergency department. Only there aren’t any beds immediately available. He’ll be sent back into the waiting room in the company of the many other waiting patients, some possibly sicker than he is. (Jay Baruch, 11/25)
Des Moines Register:
When A Planned Parenthood Clinic Closes, So Does Access To STD Testing
Some GOP politicians try to micromanage the lives of their female constituents by limiting access to abortion. The goal seems to be forcing every pregnant woman to give birth, whether she wants to or not.The anti-choice tactics of these elected officials are largely targeted at health providers who offer abortion services. Threaten them with jail time. Pass laws requiring them to perform unnecessary ultrasounds on patients, provide state-approved literature and obtain special consent for a safe, outpatient procedure. The favorite tactic, however, is starving Planned Parenthood of funding. Members of the GOP seem to believe running Planned Parenthood out of business will "save babies." Perhaps they don't understand what syphilis does to an infant. (11/21)
The Washington Post:
A Doctor Gave Me False Hope About My Dad’s Cancer Survival. It Made His Death Much More Devastating.
“Your numbers look great,” the doctor says, beaming at my father who is hunched in his wheelchair. Receiving no reaction, he directs his attention at me. “Yup,” he confirms brightly. “Everything looks good.” He is a warm man, grandfatherly, with a salt-and-pepper mustache. We have seen him periodically since discovering the cancer in my father’s bone marrow; a diagnosis finally figured out after a month-long hospital stay. He had been kind and reassuring then as well. (Alisa Schindler, 11/24)
Stat:
Descovy Trials Didn't Include Cisgender Women. That Was A Bad Call
Of the estimated 38 million people living with HIV around the world, more than half are women. Women, especially young women, are at greater risk for HIV infection than men. So why would a company omit cisgender women from its clinical trials testing a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) regimen? PrEP is a breakthrough HIV strategy that, when taken as a daily pill, is more than 90% effective at preventing sexually acquired HIV. The first drug for PrEP, Truvada, has become an essential tool for bringing us closer to ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S. and around the world. (Oni Blackstock, 11/25)
The Hill:
Doctors Are Dying By Suicide Every Day And We Are Not Talking About It
Another International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day has passed. It’s a day of remembrance started by former senator Harry Reid after he lost his father to suicide. And again, we haven’t talked enough about physician suicide, which has become an epidemic. One doctor dies by suicide every day and it is estimated that 135 people are affected by every suicide. Imagine how many people are affected when a doctor dies. Patients, colleagues, and the institution itself become the survivors to tell the story. Multiple studies show that suicide rates are higher among physicians than the general public, the highest suicide rate of any profession, and this vulnerability manifests in providers throughout the course of training and practice. (Jay Behel and Jennifer Coleman, 11/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Medicine Without Doctors Doesn’t Compute
Almost everyone who goes into medicine does so to try to help people. But doctors are trained as medical students, interns and residents in ways that are sometimes arbitrary and humorless, not to mention sleepless. While young doctors start off with the best of intentions, most of us struggle during the early parts of our careers to preserve and protect our identities. Our mechanisms for survival include what life-affirming struggles always include—love, sex, deprecating humor and deep bonds of friendship. (Marc Siegel, 11/24)
The Hill:
Bridging The Accountability Gap In Our Fight Against TB
Clearly, we need a major change in our approach to ridding the world of TB. Diagnosing, curing, and preventing the disease — while avoiding catastrophic costs — requires a hard look at how programs perform and effectively integrate into health systems. A bill currently moving through the U.S. Congress supports these efforts. It is the first proposed piece of legislation in five years dealing with our response to TB, and it differs from former bills in that it mandates detailed monitoring and regular reporting of key performance indicators.It calls for independent bodies to ensure government, organizational, and program accountability. It also calls for countries to routinely measure progress and make sure everyone involved keeps their commitments, from making sure required TB policies and infrastructure are in place to earmarking resources and spending. (Ersin Topcuoglu, 11/24)
Nashville Tennessean:
'Psych Ward' Is An Antiquated Phrase, And We Should Stop Saying It
During the time that the psychiatric hospital was first called "the psych ward," everywhere else in the hospital was called the "medical ward" or "surgical ward" respectively. The word ward is no longer used, but to everyone outside of the mental health field the antiquated phrase "psych ward" remains and now has a derogatory tone. (Emma de Caussin, 11/24)
The CT Mirror:
A Plan To Arrest The Rising Cost Of Prescription Drugs
The rising cost of prescription medication is a top-line issue for folks here in eastern Connecticut, and for millions across the country. The House of Representatives has gotten a lot of work done since coming into session in January – from securing care for our Blue Water Navy veterans, to voting to reinstate Net Neutrality as the law of the land, and much more – but one thing we’ve been squarely focused on is our effort to curb the skyrocketing costs of prescription medication, and to give Americans a better deal on drug prices. (Joe Courtney, 11/22)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Needs New Ideas On Homelessness. Right. Now
Building housing for homeless people in the city of Los Angeles is an infuriatingly slow process. Even the so-called bridge shelters that are supposed to be an interim solution while we wait for new permanent housing have been taking a year or two to go up.Meanwhile, tent encampments continue to multiply on sidewalks, in parks, under freeway overpasses — and frustration over their presence grows. (11/25)
