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Posted to Podiatry ONLINE Newsflash 2/21/01 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Subj: House Bill 1377 doesn't pass! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: Joseph Pastorek, MD Subj: Regarding Brian Gale's debacle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: Richard Willner, DPM Subj: Regarding Brian Gale's debacle <>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<> ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| LETTERS ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ___________________ From: Brian Gale, DPM Subj: HB 1377 doesn't pass! I have some great news! The Government and Veterans Affairs House Committee voted almost unanimously voted to not pass HB 1377 late yesterday. That means it's not very likely to pass the House floor vote. Thank you to everyone who helped us get this accomplished.
Now we have to work on 1262 when it goes to the Senate. 1262 currently has been amended so that it adds term limits to the Podiatry Board, which were not present before. That is a step in the right direction.
When our State Association met by phone conference last week we talked about several other changes that we would like to see for our Board. These changes are for the purpose of making the Board less of a dictatorship and to have the Board carry out its functions the way it should.
The Senate Committee members are listed below. Please help me to start contacting them regarding the Board and these problems. I think we are getting very close to having this dictatorship and peer review sham broken up.
Thank you for all of your help. Brian Gale, DPM bgale9@home.com _____________________________ From: Joseph Pastorek, MD Subj: Regarding Brian Gale's debacle I've followed the discussion about Brian Gale's situation with his podiatry license. He needs to be supported by the members of the Podiatry societies and organizations. He's being peer reviewed to ruin unfairly and improperly. The situation needs to be remedied. For any reader who doesn't already know, "peer review" in the medical sense is that process where doctors police themselves, reviewing the practice of their peers to insure that good medical care is being practiced in their vicinity (usually a hospital setting). What many laymen do NOT know, however, is that peer review is a process that can be subverted to the agenda of unscrupulous physicians (and hospital administrations), and used to attack the competition, or to run doctors out of the hospital or community for other reasons. The problem is, "peer review" is protected by law. Doctors (and administrators) participating in formal peer review have "qualified immunity," which means that if they do their peer review job in "good faith" and without malice, then even if they make a mistake, they can't be sued. After all, they're just trying to keep patients safe and keep medical care at its highest level. But this immunity can be a shield for the dishonest, as they know that unless they're caught red-handed, they cannot be sued for using peer review to run another doctor out of a hospital or even out of a state. The good-OLE-boy club rules! [A real eye-opening account and discussion of the evil uses of peer review has been written by Dr. Ron Virmani, who has experienced it first hand!] However, in Louisiana, one case of bad faith peer review was recently shot down by a jury. In other words, the doctor victim PROVED that the peer reviewers and the hospital operated in bad faith (that is, maliciously), and he won a SIX MILLION DOLLAR JUDGMENT (even though a judge mistakenly through out the jury verdict, forcing an appeal). The report was in the New Orleans Times-Picayune! Finally, peer review attacks on otherwise good doctors can be deadly. A good (and hence successful -- read "competitive") obstetrician was set upon by "colleagues" in the New Orleans area. She was run out of hospitals, turned in to the state medical board for false allegations, her license was suspended by the board and held hostage for 2 years, even though they had no credible "evidence." When she tried to work in Florida, where she had a license already, the Louisiana doctors and lawyers pursued her there, keeping her from getting privileges in various hospitals, so that she "down sized" her living quarters. She was trying to keep going, fighting on multiple fronts, trying to support 6 children and a couple of lawyers, and DIED in a fire in her small temporary apartment in Florida. She was hounded to death by "peer review". We must do everything we can to fight such terrible tragedies, and stories like Brian Gale's. Joseph Pastorek, MD, FACOG, FACS Board certified OBGYN Board subspecialty certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine _____________________________ From: Richard Willner, DPM Subj: Brian Gale, DPM debacle Enclosed is Brian Gale's Testimony. Please print it if you'd like. In 8 days, he will "celebrate" the ONE year anniversary of Brian's first Email on Podiatryonline. I have spent literally hundreds of hours investigating Gale by demanding to see source documents, patient charts, x-rays, briefs, depositions, private papers, etc. He has been most forthcoming with all of my requests. I have "checked out" all other conceivable reasons why a Doctor could lose his License. I have interviewed people who have worked for and with him. If I had seen any reason for Brian to be in this mess, I would either speak up or just go silent. Brian has a web site http://www.briangale.com that is unique and has a growing local and national following. If Brian did anything wrong, he would not encourage such intense National attention within the Profession and from Society as a whole. Thank you for all of your consideration, Richard Willner, DPM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: Brian D. Gale, DPM Subj: North Dakota H.B 1377 Testimony Chairman Klein and Committee Members: My name is Dr. Brian Gale. My address is 2418 Coolidge Avenue in Bismarck. I am testifying in opposition of Bill #1377. I believe that the best way to correct the current debt problems with the Podiatry Board is to change the Board members immediately (not in four years); otherwise the current debt problems will worsen instead of improve. Wednesday evening at a telephone conference meeting of the Podiatrists in the state, there were some very strong feelings that were expressed. The most important point that was agreed upon by everyone was that 1377 was proposed without having a discussion amongst the podiatrists. Instead, there was an attempt to push this through without anyone knowing about it. The fact that we had to meet to discuss 1377 after it became a bill means that someone is putting their own personal agenda and gain in front of what is really best for the podiatrists and the citizens in this state. This Bill is self-serving to say the least. The Podiatrists voted to oppose this Bill. Another point that was discussed was that some of the current Board members were using outrageous scare tactics to try to convince the others to support 1377. The Board s attorney and the Board s president are the ones who stand to gain by having this Bill go forward in its present state. Unfortunately, they did not think the Board would ever get into so much debt. If the Board were being run fairly and ethically, there would be no problems with the current Board s finances. Why would any attorney allow their client to go so far into debt without advising the Board or all of the Podiatrists in the state for that matter about the possible risks that would go along with this debt. At least tell the Podiatrists who have been funding the effort that it is costing a tremendous amount and will put them into debt for several years. The third point that was made is that we do not feel there is a need for a medical doctor to be on our Board any longer. This was unanimous among everyone taking part at the meeting. The Board members should be changed immediately. There should be some way for the board members to be held accountable because of their immunity. There must be a way to keep them honest. They should not be able to prevent doctors from being licensed and they should not be able to destroy doctors who are competitors. The following are examples of topics that are in other Boards statutes however are not in the podiatry boards statute and I think should be seriously considered to be added to ours.
There is something wrong with a board who accepts and takes relentless action against a doctor when 22 of 25 complaints come from a few competitors or patients who are seeing a local competitor. Thank you. I would be glad to take any questions at this time. Brian Gale, DPM
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