LETTERS: Good doctors merit more recognition
To the editor:
Dipak Desai made front-page headlines (“Desai sentenced to life,” Friday Review-Journal), rightly so and hopefully for the last time. Dr. Dale Carrison, chief of staff at University Medical Center, stated that Desai’s behavior brought shame on all physicians, and he is right.
Ironically, the obituary page of the same issue of the Review-Journal carried the notice of the passing of Dr. Thomas Cinque, who was the direct opposite of that day’s headliner. Why haven’t my medical colleagues given well-earned front-page praise to those physicians who quietly make life better, day in and day out? Dr. Cinque was associate dean of the University of Nevada School of Medicine and dean of his alma mater, Creighton University Medical School. He was instrumental in getting our renal transplant program started at UMC.
We have outstanding physicians in Nevada, but we have a big problem with engagement. The good guys are focused on getting patients better, and the system of oversight does not encourage meaningful engagement. We give lip service but fail to deliver the three essential components of effective governance: clearly spelled out, meaningful oversight; the provision of adequate resources; and political will. In Desai’s case, money buying influence trumped everything else.
For starters, let’s create a single licensing board for the healing arts. Nevada’s separate domains don’t welcome a level and meaningful playing field. It’s time for a change.
LEONARD KREISLER, M.D.
LAS VEGAS
No foul play
To the editor:
Regarding Ron Lowe’s letter (“Hacking Obamacare,” Saturday Review-Journal), he alleges with no further evidence that tea party supporters and Republicans hacked into the healthcare.gov website to cause the chaos that now exists.
Really? First off, the Republicans — in their already damaged state — could not afford such nonsense as it would leak and it would finish them. Second, as for Republicans “trying to destroy the Obama presidency,” Barack Obama himself will handle that.
AL CIRICILLO
LAS VEGAS
Does Obama care?
To the editor:
President Barack Obama would certainly care more about the Affordable Care Act if his staff, Congress and their family members were recipients of Obamacare and had to experience enrolling in his creation instead of being excluded from it or largely subsidized for it. One Republican demand in debt ceiling negotiations with this dictator and his cohorts could have been easily accomplished by insisting that they all enroll in Obamacare before the debt ceiling would be raised.
The president would still get what he wanted, and his creation would speak for itself, since we would all be in the same boat, trying to enroll in something that is never going to work. Mr. Obama will go down in history as the worst president, because he didn’t care about you or me.
JAN MILLS
LAS VEGAS
Class act
To the editor:
I doubt many readers noticed the last sentence in Friday’s write-up of the Faith Lutheran-Western high school football game.
It read as follows: “Western allowed Faith’s special needs senior Clayton Rhodes to rush for a 2-point conversion.” What a class act on the part of the schools, their players and the coaches. Ditto to the Review-Journal for taking note.
PHIL PERINE
LAS VEGAS
