[Ppnews] CA prison doctors union sues to prevent competency rules

Tue May 3 11:58:32 EDT 2005

Only in America.

<http://www.montereyherald.com/>
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Posted on Tue, May. 03, 2005

Prison doctors' union sues to block higher standards

DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - The union representing prison doctors sued the Department of 
Corrections to block higher standards for physicians, blaming appalling 
health care problems on an inferior prison system.

The Oakland-based Union of American Physicians and Dentists said Monday its 
doctors are not responsible for the problems. The Department of Corrections 
wants doctors to be board certified in internal medicine or family 
practice, or pass a competency test.

The plan follows a series of scathing reports on health care at state 
prisons. National experts reported last month that conditions are so poor 
that inmates are dying of neglect and maltreatment.

The suit filed Friday in Sacramento County Superior Court said imposing new 
minimum qualification standards violates state law, which requires that any 
new qualifications must be approved by the State Personnel Board. The board 
now requires only that doctors and dentists be licensed in California.

A department spokesman, Todd Slosek, said the department was bound by a 
court order stemming from the settlement of an inmate lawsuit to make sure 
its doctors provide adequate medical care.

"The evaluation is designed to ensure that the department has competent 
physicians that can provide a constitutional level of care to the inmate 
population," Slosek said.

The department has twice tried to impose such standards under what the 
union alleged were flawed evaluation programs. The union said no 
correctional agency in the nation requires its doctors to prove their 
competency.

The Department of Corrections is "arbitrarily, capriciously, and 
unilaterally imposing new minimum qualifications for prison doctors to 
divert attention from its own execrable management spanning two decades," 
the union said in a statement. "In a desperate last ditch effort to divert 
attention from its own colossal mismanagement, CDC is doing its best to 
blame prison doctors for its own failures."

National experts last month reported cases of doctors who acted 
incompetently, prescribing the wrong treatment or ignoring complaints until 
it was too late. They and other experts have said doctors are sometimes 
unqualified to see the patients they treat, conditions are abysmal, and the 
medical system is severely understaffed.

Youth and Adult Correctional Agency Undersecretary Kevin Carruth 
acknowledged last week that prison officials are unable to manage the 
medical system, and want to hire University of California consultants to 
design a plan to improve care in 18 months.

The union criticized the plan to pay UC San Diego and UC San Francisco 
$14.7 million, when it says the state could be better served by 
implementing 28 reforms that the union has suggested.

A Senate committee cut out the consultants' money last week, in 
anticipation that a federal judge will hold hearings and may appoint an 
overseer for the health care system.

The Freedom Archives
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