The BCMA should be ashamed of the cover illustration for the leaflet “7800 Doctors Have Done Everything They Can.” Not for the inside copy, which was well written and organized, but for the picture of a physician, his face etched in pain, his mask hanging loosely around his neck, a pair of glasses in one hand. Had he just delivered the heartbreaking and tragic news to the parents of a child he could not save?
No, he was reacting to the doctors’ labor dispute with the provincial government. A labor dispute!
Those who have traveled the road to the River and stood on its very brink will reflect on their own emotions, emotions which are described with perception and sensitivity by Dr Erik Paterson, “Feelings on encountering a near-lethal illness,”[BCMJ 2002;44(5):278].
The title above appears to have been adopted as a motto by our governments. If they allow a 12-month waiting period for a particular treatment, are we to deduce that earlier treatment than that is not medically necessary?
The recent debacle over the firing of Russell Mills, the publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, is a nice macro of the pressures all editors are faced with in their daily struggle to maintain editorial independence. The Asper family added Conrad Black’s Canadian newspaper empire to CanWest Global after prolonged testimonials to regulatory agencies that they would play no role in dictating editorial content. In addition, they declared that CanWest was fiercely dedicated to the freedom of the press from any and all political/economic pressures.
