Confidential File

Medical Profession Recognizes a Peril

There
are groups in this town that are highly sensitive to criticism by the
press. So sensitive, in fact, that I get the feeling sometimes they'd
just as soon we didn't exist.

They don't like the idea of our
reporting — to coin a phrase — all the news that's fit to print.
Especially, if the news happens to place them or their cohorts in a bad
light.

They can't stand having their mistakes hung up in public places.

And they're not the least bit timid about running to a reporter's boss if they feel their dignity has been sullied.

A few days ago I wrote an article directly concerning a group which prides itself on its dignity.

Probably it's the most respected profession in the world today; the medical profession.

I
told the story of a doctor who had been very careless — careless
enough to have almost caused a tragedy involving a 2 1/2-year-old child.

He
had disposed some prescription medicine — pretty, colored pills — and
some hypodermic needles in an alleyway where some kids got their hands
on it and began passing it around as "candy."

I pointed out that
the doctor wasn't very concerned with the health and safety of the
public to have committed such a negligent act.

Then I sat back and waited for the repercussions. And I'd been around long enough to know that I could expect some.

But I was mistaken.

I did get some calls from doctors. They weren't "incensed subscribers," however.

One thanked me for the column and added:

"If you didn't reach anybody else, you reached me. Just before I sat down with the newspaper. I had absent-mindedly tossed a package of sample pills from a pharmaceutical house into the waste-basket."

I heard from the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. They assured me that the occurrence which I described wasn't a common one.

"However," I was told, "it can happen. Every now and then we run a reminder about it in our bulletin."

The LACMA issued a special bulletin on the subject the day after the column appeared.

Another
doctor told me that the Los Angeles Police Department had recently sent
out warnings of its own to various medical associations.

The police were more concerned with the hypodermic-needle problem.

A
new type of disposable injection unit, called a preloaded hypodermic
syringe insert, is beginning to find its way into the hands of addicts
around town.

It's a simple matter to turn one of the disposable
inserts into a hype kit — and the LAPD urged the doctors to break the
needles before tossing the inserts into the trash.

I was also told by the California Osteopaths Association that they plan to run the LAPD warning in the next issue of the monthly publication.

But
most interesting was the information I received that a lot of the
pharmaceutical house free samples which flood local doctors' mail boxes
end up where there's a genuine need.

The alumni association of
the College of Medical Evangelists' school of medicine has had as a pet
project since 1951: the collection of medical equipment and surplus
drugs for distribution to missionaries throughout the world.

Medical Evangelists at Work

In the last 12 months they've shipped out 18 tons of medical equipment and supplies.

The
alumni contribute their surplus free drug samples to the project, but
— I'm told — they'll welcome similar contributions from other
doctors. Any doctor interested may contact the project's co-ordinator, Mrs. Esther Hackman, at ANgeles 2-2173.

For
my part, I'm glad the doctors took my criticism as it was intended, I
guess they're too busy being sensitive about more important matters to
have time to take offense at a published account of a mistake by one of
their colleagues.