The erosion of medical safety

You expect the FDA to be more competent than the rest of the government? I don’t think so.

That may be the case in your facility, but the facts don’t lie.

The technologic equipment does improve in terms of quality and safety. What plummets is the safety of the medications.

Facts? Show me a single fact in the entire posted article. All that I see is a rant by someone critical of the current administration, quoting a newspaper with an axe to grind, with “facts” from a “top House Democrat”. Facts indeed. For all of its faults, the FDA is one of the strictest bodies to any kind of medical equipment approved. My sister works for a company who is trying to get a new kind of artificial heart approved. It already has approval in many European countries, but not here yet.

>ruining our environment, our economy, our world standing, and now our >health?

World standing is fine, as people no longer think that America will run after a few attacks which is what happened after Beirut and Somalia. Air quality is better than ever. The economy’s doing quite well, with unemployment low and GDP a new record. Even the deficit is dropping by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Any thing from the times is suspect also. They have made it clear they hate the president and will do anything to bring him down.

Unfortunately our health system is heavily controlled by the goverment, polictis. Our doctors are hand-tied! As a doctor I feel it greatly.

Klemens
Digital Photo Frame | Digital Picture Frame

#12 fusion…..you know as well as I do that you can make anything say what you want it to say in *research* or in *satistics*.
Find someone who honestly has no ax to grind and have them study the issue….not some political hack of either party……then come see me.

Good point, Mr. Fusion.

It’s amazing how those in denial attack the messenger, not the mesage.

My pointing this stuff out is not to ridcule America or insult those involved. My posting things like this is intended to raise attention to the issue so we can talk about what we can do about it.

To simply accept everything the government presents to you without question is not only foohardy, it is being disingenuous to oneself.

“This administration is ruining our environment, our economy, our world standing, and now our health?”

Smartalix – If that isn’t meant to ridicule, I don’t know what is. I do agree with your acertian that it is not wise to accept everything that the government presents as facts. However, that should go with just about any one presenting facts. The referenced article is clearly written by someone who would almost automatically think that every thing the the GWB administration does is the work of the devil, at the same time praising just about anything that the previous administration had done. The article references a New York Times article that as its sole arguement, only presenting two data points from which it renders judgement from 2000 and 2005. What happened in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004? and is all of the statistics in for all of 2005? Also since the article is all about enforcement, there seems to be no consideration for how the enforcement branch of the FDA has been effected by the restructuring of the federal government since the creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Also, there is no consideration for how any kind of changes in the FDA under the Bush Administration has negatively or positively affected the quality of medical services in general. The Times article only mentions an increase in recalls in defective equipment, which could be a sign of good or bad industry policing, but there is no other data from which one can draw any number of conclusions. Finally, which part of government should we question, and which part should we accept foolhardily? Smartalix seems to favor distrust in the executive branch. The New York TImes seems to favor beating up on Congress (however the administration vis-a-vis the FDA is still there). Why not question Congressman Waxman? Doesn’t he have a campaign that he needs to run this November to get reelected? It is fine to question what any part of the government motives may be at any time, it just would be nice to have some good facts backed up be strong data to draw solid conclusions. From what is presented here may be cause for alarm and demanding of our elected officials to take action to overt a disaster before one happens, but from the questions, I raised above from the data presented, I don’t think that the punchline of “This administration is ruining our environment, our economy, our world standing, and now our health?” has been earned in this case.

19, That opens up a hole new can of worms. Why can’t the questioning consumer in conjunction with a knowlegable, competent doctor together pick out the prothesis, or medication that will work best for the patient/consumer? Isn’t that how it is supposed to work? In the ideal case it should be, but too many times the uncritical patient blindly takes the first thing that the doctor suggests, not knowing that the doctor may have other interests in mind. This gets down to what I think is the bigger problem with the whole healthcare situation that this country is faced with. Too many people don’t really care about the costs/processes/procedures involved with their health. Just as long as the insurance company covers it and they feel good fast. Have you ever wondered why a doctor orders the tests involved, or what they cost? Not very many are aware that a cheaper CAT scan or XRay can do what a more expensive MRI can find, but don’t ask certain questions of the doctor, just as long as the copay is low. I feel that is more people just asked more questions at the doctors office, and atleast were somehow more involved with how much is actually involved in the cost or their care, the system would run a lot smoother.

-sorry, I guess I am just long winded today.

If a police officer starts to slack off in a neighborhood, there may not be an increase in crime immediately, but the potential for the unscrupulous to take advantage of a lax enforcement sysytem is immense.

The same drug companies that are paying this administration to let them write its laws are also pushing for less regulation. That creates a catastrophic time bomb.

This is a perfect example of what’s wrong with our cash-based political system. Company A pays off Congressman B for legislation C, which Company D uses unscrupulously, causing Congressman B’s constituents to force him to place regulation in place to close some of the massive loopholes in law that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

So we wind up with a thicket of laws and regulations that only those who can afford to navigate can use.

We can fix it, but first we must agree it’s broken.

So you think the drug lobby (or any other) is not bribing our politicians with campaign donations? Why do you think they give so much money, tout of the goodness of their heart?

My comment about cops was an analogy. I guess you do have comprehension problems. A lax enforcement environment encourages abuse. Or do you not agree?