The Oregonian just came out with a 12 page article on Jayant Patel, the surgeon that ran amok, hacking up patients throughout New York, Oregon and Queensland, Australia for years.

I could be polite and say that Jayant Patel was involved in numerous malpractice cases but that is really just too polite for what he has actually done. To not say it like it really is only continues to condone the systemic problems within government systems in place to protect the public. It is time to be coarse and very blunt about this person's professional actions and any others that practice medicine like him. There will be little chance of change unless the public calls it what it actually is.

Now it is time to start patching the holes in the systems in place to protect patients from the likes of the Jayant Patel's of this world. Now is the time to realize that people like him and corporations that profit off of such actions should not be allowed to operate under laws that are written only "on the honor system," without true penalties.

There must be actual penalties placed within these laws. Doctors and corporations are not any different than the rest of the world. Without enforcement capability, laws are nothing more than words written on paper. For those states that do have some enforcement capability using the excuse that there is no money allocated for enforcement is stupid and says to the public that they are simply not doing their job. Even if it is possibly true that enforcement is limited due to funding problems they could at least make the information public so people stand a chance to avoid falling under any butcher's knife.

It is a great article printed in the Oregonian and the following web addys are where you can read about it.

Patel's disturbing record at Kaiser
Despite a series of malpractice cases and negligent surgeries, the HMO saw Dr. Jayant Patel as anything
Sunday, November 06, 2005
SUSAN GOLDSMITH and DON COLBURN
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/malpractice/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1131093370226790.xml&coll=7
tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/d5p5p
Mirrored for historical purposes at:
http://www.kaiserpapers.info/patelrecord.html