Letter to the Reading Eagle About the Inferior Care of Nurse Practitioners and the Racial Motivation to Grow their Ranks
Here.
This is the original submission, softened by the editor:
Force Legislators, Their Families To See Only Nurse Practitioners
David Behar, MD
A
patient commented, a nurse practitioner insisted the growing lesion on
his arm was an "age spot." The patient demanded to see the
dermatologist, after a year. From the door, the doctor stated, “That is a
squamous cell carcinoma. It has to come out.”
Would a member of
the legislature with crushing chest pain, shortness of breath, want to
be seen by a cardiologist or by a nurse practitioner typing an
electronic record? The lives of black people on Medicaid are worth no
less than that of the white legislator. The movement to allow nurse
practitioners to prescribe unsupervised, will result in a two tiered
health system, one for whites, one for blacks. There is no doctor
shortage, only of doctor time. Half of that time is consumed by
worthless procedure so that fewer payments are made for patient care by
government and by insurance companies. It is the greatest fraud crime
in history, netting $trillions.
People with perfect grades get
into nurse practitioner programs. All could go to medical school. They
choose to make money earlier. That corner cutting should not be rewarded
with independent prescribing privileges. They know one quarter what
specialists know, and half as much as primary care physicians do. They
are fit only to prescribe for patients doing well, under supervision.
