I agree that intentionally inflicting anyone with hep C is a crime. My point was that if she could have gotten help with her addiction, she would not have had to “steal” the patients dosages and substitute the dirty needles.

A person’s mental state when they voluntarily use drugs or alcohol is well established in law. You are guilty.

A similar program is to promote the use of a designated driver in order to cut down on drunk drivers. Several cities have “clean needle” exchanges in an effort to reduce HIV and hepatitis transmission. BUT, we need to get past the addiction as a crime and treat it as a medical condition.

exposing “hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis C after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution.”

is not a disease, it’s a crime; don’t, confuse the two!

Addiction is a disease. Unfortunately, it is treated as a crime and people don’t get the help they need until it is too late.

it has been my experience that physicians are prone to underdose narcotics than give enough or too much. After the last episode, I am more than convinced it was my wife’s (an RN) insistence that got me sufficient painkillers.

A few years ago, just after I moved to this little burg, I saw a newer physician who was just setting up shop. I had a painful sinus infection. She wouldn’t write me anything stronger than ibuprofen. About three years later she had her appendix out and I again saw her shortly afterward with a broken foot. She was now prepared to write a script for nearly anything I wanted.

Shameful.

#3 MacGuy – Pericarditis can be extremely painful and difficult to manage, painwise. Morphine is titrated, that is they modify the dose to achieve a result. If you don’t complain enough, they think it’s doing the job. Some idiots think, even if you do complain, that you just want more drugs. But, chances are you were getting the meds you were supposed to receive.

What happens in a single payer system when an employee does a criminal act? Why, you get a large cash settlement of course.

Good try on the fear mongering though. I hope you are enjoying your nameless faceless bureaucratic insurance company.

Outcome based medicine is all about what works and what doesn’t. It isn’t an open ended system based on a theory of what should work. It is a closed loop system with constant correction feed back on how things are working. If things don’t work as prescribed then there is some thing wrong that needs to be understood and corrected.

If Outcome based medicine was more rigorously practiced substituting saline for fentanyl would have been caught the first time.

So remember, when this hospital becomes government owned and the employee is a mindless, faceless, bureaucrat – how successful will your medical malpractice suit will be?

Oh yeah – ya can’t sue the government….just ask anyone stuck in a VA hospital.

Ouch!

I’ve never done any illicit drugs, nor have I ever abused any painkillers. I wonder…