Patients And Physicians Alliance Asks DNC to Remove Governor Ed Rendell as Democratic National Convention Speaker
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PHILADELPHIA, PA, Aug 25, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — The Patients And Physicians Alliance (P.A.P.A.) ( www.fightingdocs.com), an organization of physicians and patients formed to stop Pennsylvania’s erosion of health care services, blames Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell for the commonwealth’s continued closure of hospital maternity care services, trauma centers, and medical practices, and is asking the Democratic National Committee to withdraw Rendell as speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The organization points out Rendell’s campaigns received substantial funding from personal injury lawyer special interest groups opposed to legal reforms that would end Pennsylvania’s widespread medical liability lawsuit abuse, and patient fatalities that result from the abuse.
“Time and again, Governor Rendell has publicly denied Pennsylvania’s health care delivery crisis exists, in spite of the fact that patients have died due to the commonwealth’s loss of trauma care services and mothers and their unborn babies have lost access to delivery room services throughout Philadelphia and beyond,” said P.A.P.A. Founding Member James Tayoun, Jr., D.O. “Governor Rendell’s allegiance to special interests representing personal injury lawyers in spite of his own constituents’ loss of critical medical care is abhorrent. For that reason we call upon the Democratic National Committee to remove Governor Rendell as a speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
“Philadelphia holds the distinction of being home to some of America’s best medical teaching colleges, yet it cannot keep physicians in the state,” Tayoun continued. “In the past decade, fourteen Philadelphia area maternity units have closed leaving hundreds of mothers and babies in the heavily populated Northeast quadrant in grave danger.”
According to Tayoun, thousands of physicians have left Pennsylvania due to skyrocketing medical liability insurance costs brought on by rampant medical liability lawsuit abuse. More than half of Pennsylvania’s 25,000 physicians have been sued for malpractice since Governor Rendell took office in 2002, yet the State Medical Board has found less than 300 of those cases warranted further action. In addition to Pennsylvania’s physician loss, less than 8% of its medical students remain in the state after graduation — a sharp decline from 50% prior to Governor Rendell’s taking office.
