Comments on: My take: Paying for call, Muslims in medicine

By: Rudster

Rudster — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Here’s the link to the article about Muslim females to which the original poster is probably referring.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1577426/Female-Muslim-medics-%27disobey-hygiene-rules%27.html

By: Dr. A

Dr. A — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:58:00 +0000

This paying for call thing is just a symptom of an unfortunate movement that is happening. Hospitals are not willing to pay for call, but more than willing to pay to bring in a hospitalist service, then hire an OB house physician, surgical house physician, etc.

This is further diluting the delivery of health care in small communities like mine. We’re subjecting patients to an outpatient physician (me), then an inpatient physician (local hospitalist), maybe some house physicians, then if they are transferred to a tertiary center, an entirely new set of physicians. I hope patients (ie, voters) rise up and let legislators know how they feel about this fragmented system.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:21:00 +0000

I am a Muslim physician, and i am religious, there are no interference between Islam and medicine than affects then patient care badly, and half of what is said in this article about Islam isn’t true especially about antiseptic, instead of that Islam added a lot of good things medicine especially ethics wise.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:04:00 +0000

On-call physician availability problems are yet another symptom of the illness affecting our healthcare system. Insurance WILL NOT solve this alone as remuneration is typically inadequate. It will take massive infusions of cash and reform of our emergency departments. I anticipate only one or two high volume centers per city offering a full range of tertiary services for the true emergencies. Other emergency departments will morph into a mode similar to urgent care clinics due to a lack of available medical staff.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:39:00 +0000

I don’t remember where on the web I read it, but it seems that in the UK muslim women in OR (docs, I think) were refusing to bare their arms (up to the elbows) to do the required scrub. There have been other reports (again, I don’t remember the site) of male muslim doctors who have signed off on psychiatric commitments of “troublesome” Muslim women.

By: John S

John S — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:42:00 +0000

To pick the most common commercial brand, it’s 62% ethyl alcohol.

Generally it would be fine with me to avoid that stuff; actually washing hands should ordinarily be sufficient.

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:56:00 +0000

My understanding of the issue with Muslim medical personnel is not that they won’t wash their hands but rather that they won’t use the ubiquitous “hand sanitizers” because of their alcohol content. Their religion prohibits contact with alcohol and many members of the religion who are fervent observers hold to the belief that this prohibition extends even to the dilution in these sanitizers.

By: redrabbitslife

redrabbitslife — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Muslim docs refusing to practise antisepsis? What sort of fear-mongering nutball started that rumour.

My medical school (in Canada) had a large number of Muslim residents for whom religion certainly did not interfere with their ability to provide top-notch care.

By: Guy

Guy — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:47:00 +0000

my town is building a competing hospital down the road, I think then the current hospital will have to start paying for call or there won’t be enough people left to take call.

By: STLstrike3

STLstrike3 — Tue, 27 May 2008 23:13:00 +0000

My hospital in an underserved rural area has an administration that has fairly openly said they do not want to "set a precedent" by paying primary care physicians to take call.

The problem is there are a lot of the Old Guard in this community who have been taking their own call for years (and let's take a look at their compensation packages while we're at it). So this enables the hospital to question, and I'm using their words here, the "work ethic" of the younger physicians.

Here, like most places, will never change unless doctors really do threaten to leave, and keep good on the promise. Not enough have been willing to do so.