Quotes of the Month Archives FALL 2003 I hope and trust everybody had a pleasant and relatively comfortable summer. North Texas was not as hot as usual in July and August and except for the lack of rain, it was quite tolerable. I must say I may have missed some hot days in May since I was in Ireland for three weeks. My wife and I and another couple, who are long time good friends, toured the circumference of the island by car. Ireland is a beautiful country and just as green as an emerald, as it is always described. It rained every day but the last three, when we were in Dublin. The rain consisted of intermittent showers that came down as the clouds would come and go. Very seldom were there steady downpours so with our "brellys" we could sightsee without hindrance. I was surprised by the yellow flowering gorse which grows in hedgerows and along ancient stone fences that divide the sheep littered green fields into geometrical patterns. The combination of green and yellow was striking. Ireland's history is replete with violence, famine, and tragedy. It required hundreds of years for the Irish to overthrow the bonds of English oppression and become a free nation. Northern Ireland is still part of the British Empire that is significantly shrunk from the previous Victorian glory years. In the 1990s the economy of the Irish Republic started booming as a result of the electronic and pharmaceutical industries. From the early 1800s to the middle of the 20th century Ireland lost millions of its young people as a result of emigration and death as a result of famine and squalid living conditions. With the soaring economy as a stimulant many of the Irish, especially the younger generation, have moved back and further energized the country. We found the Irish to be extremely friendly and especially fond of Americans except for our President. They were surprisingly up to date on foreign affairs and worldwide current events. Over 50% had visited the United States because of relatives living there. The typical Irish citizen went out of their way to be friendly, give directions, and recommend sites to visit in their beautiful country that they were obviously proud of. According to taxi drivers, the Irish Health System is two tiered. There is the National System that is available to everyone and then there is a private system for those who can afford it. Patients are referred to hospitals by family practitioners and then treated by consultants whom we call specialists. According to the taxi drivers who I considered to be spokesmen for the typical Irishman, the consultants control the tempo of the system. If you are a patient in the public system then the wait for elective surgery, for example, can be months or even a year. In the private side patients are accommodated as they are in our system that for the most part is private with insurance or government subsidy. Where the American System fails, in comparison, is the number of un-insured or under insured American citizens who have no access to quality health care unless they throw themselves into hospital emergency rooms. By law they cannot be turned away and the hospital assumes the uncompensated financial burden. With the number increasing, hospitals will not be able to continue this service indefinitely-something will have to give. This together with the malpractice problem and a runaway pharmaceutical industry that egregiously escalates drug prices each year and obscenely advertises are some of the main problems in the American Health Care System. I think this will be addressed in the upcoming elections and hopefully solved. Please carefully heed each candidate's ideas for it is complicated and a solution will be both expensive and difficult. I have jumped all around in my description of our Irish trip and hardly covered all the attributes of both the country and its people. It would take a book to do so. I just wanted to give the reader a taste and the flavor of the country so you would consider it as a trip destination. I guarantee an enjoyable experience. For all you Texas readers, thank you for passing proposition #12, which amended the Texas Constitution, thus legally allowing the legislative cap on non-economic damages in malpractice cases. This is not, of course, the complete solution but it should help considerably and hopefully reduce the high insurance premiums that have driven many doctors into retirement or out of the state. I realize this Webletter has been somewhat haphazard and certainly has deviated from the subject of preventive medicine but I thought you might be interested in our trip to Ireland. I have decided to make the Webletters on preventive medicine quarterly in order to try electronic publishing of various projects that I have been working on. I have some reworked historical essays and I have developed an interest in poetry. One essay is on Huey P. Long's assassination and the other is on Grover Cleveland's secret operation. The poetry is on mixed subjects. My plan is to periodically publish these on the web site so they can be downloaded by interested readers. QUOTES OF THE FALL SEASON I met with Napper Tandy and heTake care until next time, Richard J. Turner, III, M.D., F.A.C.S. Editor To ask questions or submit comments, please fill out and submit the contact form. ARCHIVES Texas Surgical Society Meeting Notes The Malpractice Crisis Treatment and Prevention of Malignant Disease West Nile/Cancers/Discontent with American Healthcare/Prescriptions History of Preventive Medicine Smoking Risks/Depression/The Western Diet Food Consumption/Cancer and Treatment Relationships Notes from the Spring Texas Surgical Society Meeting Alternative Medicine Breast Cancer Symposium Vitamin B, Passive Smoking, Statin Therapy, Common Cough Type 2 Diabetus Mellitus |