Medi-Cal and its Deleterious Impact in California Medical Care: Honor

One of the most amazing privileges of being a surgeon in Sacramento was in receiving patient referrals from my fellow physicians for  consideration of whether I would recommend surgery. It was  like a feather in my cap. And the honor of being able to be a doctor for every single patient that came into my office was wonderful.  I made a lot of friends. It was equally an honor to operate on patients in the welcoming hospitals in downtown Sacramento, filled with eager and considerate staff, everyone from the tiny administration down to the housekeeper moping the floors and keeping them shiny. It was always peaceful to say hello and have a moment of fun with everybody. Call it “team patient”. 

Everybody was interested in, inherently tender with, and characteristically respectful of the people who really mattered to all of us, and that was the patients. It was quiet in those halls and on the wards and in the operating rooms because people were doing their beloved jobs, and they cared a lot about those prized paying guests called patients. That includes even bad people who became patients. A human being is a human being in medicine. No discrimination. After all, patients, and everybody I worked alongside were all God’s little children. There was always a smile looking back at you, needing you, and it made the environment conducive to healing, a very hospitable and caring environment indeed. Get these patients back on the road, back in the saddle, independent and strong. What a feeling of confidence and satisfaction for everyone. It’s simply about the welfare of all included, and of goodwill. 

Another feature of my early time as a surgeon was the profound number of physicians from all over the country who decided to make Sacramento home and who were always eager to look in on my patients when I asked them, for their expertise if a problem arose. They were always prompt, correct in their assessment of what needed to be done, and kind to my patients. It made me very thankful they were around. It also made me eager to help them out when they needed my consultations. We didn’t need any outside help, especially with my alma mater, UC Davis medical center, right down the street, the place where I learned my craft. UC Davis was the tertiary center for even the surrounding counties, capable of various treatments that the bread-and-butter hospitals in the region weren’t. In fact, anywhere you would go in California had equally dedicated staff and physicians in those hospitals and in those doctors’ offices, even in the smallest of towns.

Look at it from the standpoint of the patient. No patient wants to be in the hospital, but the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, x-ray techs, administrators (thank goodness not many of those around in the early days) and even the building maintenance personnel were friendly and respectful. It clearly helped the patients heal, and they knew it. 

So that’s my definition of honor. And it reflects a well-run and profitable business called “the art of medicine.” And that is stuff of what the evil, bitter, greedy, thieving, dangerous, envious monsters called Newsom and the government run tyrants exploited for their personal gain and control of.  That’s called dishonor, and it is a horrible addiction.  

Patients inherently recognize it when doctors, nurses, hospital staffs, outpatient clinics, and diagnostic centers don’t care anymore. They recognize what the problem is sooner or later, when there are no good doctors and good nurses around. They recognize it when caring medical personnel have been replaced by low or no talent workers, willing to do the job for what the wage requires. You surely can’t blame them. And that clearly isn’t up to the standard of the art of medicine. It is the opposite of exceptionalism. It is dishonor of the art of medicine.

The above is my description of the breach of the moral law or covenant of the Hippocratic Oath called honor. And as my oath goes, “If I obey these covenants may I enjoy life and art, but if I violate even one, may the reverse be my lot.”

It is my verdict that Newsom has violently gone out of bounds by exercising arbitrary and random power, essentially defining himself as a mammoth, unwelcome, dishonorable pseudo physician along with his massive dishonorable administrative state, and he has blundered horribly. Dishonor is the theme now in medicine, ever since it has been renamed”healthcare” or government run healthcare.  

So let me ask a few questions of you regarding this breach and of each successive breach to be discussed in this series. They will all be the same questions which will compare what we had to what we have now. Regarding honor, please think about these important questions when comparing doctor patient run medicine to Newsom run healthcare:  

Is medical help affordable? Is medical help competent? Is medical help satisfying? Is medical help safe? 

Thank you for your focused consideration of this matter because it is you who will decide the future history of the medical profession. And now, onward to the next chapter of the Hippocratic Oath, which is teaching.

This is Part VII of a series on Medi-Cal, government run healthcare.

Part I is here: Medi-Cal and Its Deleterious Impact in California Medical Care: The Cause

Part II is here: Medi-Cal and Its Deleterious Impact in California Medical Care: The Effect

Part III is here: Medi-Cal and Its Deleterious Impact in California Medical Care: The Cure

Part IV is here: Medi-Cal and Its Deleterious Impact in California Medical Care: The Deep State

Part V is here: Medi-Cal and Its Deleterious Impact in California Medical Care: The Challenge

Part VI is here: Medi-Cal and Its Deleterious Impact in California Medical Care: The Challenge