The Philadelphia VA hospital story has really taken off. Usually when there is a high profile radiation therapy accident, like with the unfortunate Lisa Norris, the interest dies off fairly quickly. However, in this case, the interest seems to be just beginning to ramp up.
Congress is now getting involved. Rep. John Adler (D-NJ), member of the House Veterans’ Affairs committee, has called for a congressional investigation into the matter. He will also participate in a hearing on Monday called by Sen. Arlen Specter, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs committee.
It’s easy to see why this series of accidents has attracted so much more notice than other recent mishaps, such as the overdoses at Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center. Right now, the US is in the middle of a debate on the future of our health care system. This is too “sexy”, to borrow Lisa Raitt’s term, an issue to pass up both for advocates and opponents of more government involvement in health care. Opponents are already pointing to the mistakes as a warning against “government health care.” Advocates are blaming the outsourcing of the procedures to private physicians.
Both viewpoints are incorrect. These failures were not a product of too much or too little government control over medicine. They can (and do) happen in for profit hospitals, non-profit hospitals, and public hospitals throughout the world. The problem was a failure to mandate department wide peer review by a team of radiation therapy experts. It’s sad really, because I hoped that at least something good could be salvaged from these awful events. I hoped that finally our health care system would see the need to enforce minimum standards for accreditation of radiation oncology programs. I hope I’m wrong, but right now I’m afraid that all we will get is cheap political theater.
