Speaker 1: Days Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Condon's video.
Speaker 2: Well, the beginning earlier this week, actually on Monday night
Speaker 2: at nine o'clock, we have spoken about the Stewart Hospital
Speaker 2: clothing closing. Now, we did not touch on the subject
Speaker 2: last night. We talked about it. We spent an hour
Speaker 2: on it Monday night. We spent a couple of hours
Speaker 2: on it Tuesday night, and we spent a half an
Speaker 2: hour with Congressman Laurie Trahan of Massachusetts the congressional district.
Speaker 2: And so today a deal in principle has occurred, and
Speaker 2: I'd like to try to explain it as best I can.
Speaker 2: I know we've heard the news reports today, but there
Speaker 2: were several hospitals that were owned by Stuart Healthcare and
Speaker 2: Stewart Healthcare, and we've talked about it this week was
Speaker 2: involved in some very interesting financial arrangements that I believe
Speaker 2: will be looked at carefully in retrospect. But basically, Stewart
Speaker 2: said that it was putting several of these facilities up
Speaker 2: for sale. And the hospitals in question of Saint Elizabeth's
Speaker 2: Medical Center in Brighton, that facility as well as the
Speaker 2: Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, the Lawrence to hospitals
Speaker 2: up in the Merrimack Valley area, Holy Family Hospital in
Speaker 2: mathun Holy Family Hospital in haverl also Saint Ian's Hospital
Speaker 2: in fall River, and Morton Hospital in Taunton. These hospitals
Speaker 2: were a part of what was called Caratas Christie which
Speaker 2: the hospitals were run by the Archdiocese of Boston, and
Speaker 2: most of them were run by the Archdiocese of Boston
Speaker 2: up into twenty ten when they sold when the Archdiocese
Speaker 2: needed cash in large part for the pre pedophile scandal,
Speaker 2: and that set in motion a set of circumstances in
Speaker 2: which these hospitals were purchased by this group called Stewart.
Speaker 2: They stayed here based in Massachusetts for five years, and
Speaker 2: then in twenty and fifteen they stopped cooperating with the
Speaker 2: regulators and they relocated the headquarters from Boston to Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 2: And of course they did not file the information that
Speaker 2: was needed, and so it's a huge mess. It's a
Speaker 2: huge mess. But the bottom line is that the removal
Speaker 2: of these hospitals from the medical community in Massachusetts would
Speaker 2: have a devastating impact when you realize we talked last
Speaker 2: hour with a doctor from the Chan School of Public
Speaker 2: Health and making the point that it's tough just to
Speaker 2: find a doctor, never mind a hospital. So as a
Speaker 2: consequence of everything that's gone on the last few weeks,
Speaker 2: Sat Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton will continue under the
Speaker 2: auspices of the Boston Medical Center BMC. Boston Medical Center,
Speaker 2: which of course is in Boston's South End, used to
Speaker 2: be what we call Boston City Hospital, will also take
Speaker 2: over the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton. So Boston
Speaker 2: Medical Center will expand Lawrence General Hospital will acquire two hospitals.
Speaker 2: They're both Holy Family Hospitals. Again, these are Catholic hospitals,
Speaker 2: formerly Catholic hospitals. Holy Family Hospital which has a facility
Speaker 2: in Mathune and one in Havel, So Lawrence General Hospital
Speaker 2: will take over those two hospitals. Congressman Laurie Trhan was
Speaker 2: very concerned about those hospitals in her in her district.
Speaker 2: There's a third hospital in her district which unfortunately will
Speaker 2: not will be closed unfortunately. Now, a Providence based health
Speaker 2: system called Lifespan Health System will buy Saint Anne's Hospital
Speaker 2: in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton, so that
Speaker 2: health system Lifespan Health System in Rhode Island will now
Speaker 2: have a footprint here in Massachusetts. The two hospitals that
Speaker 2: apparently are going to close because I've seen nothing to
Speaker 2: suggest anything to the contrary, Cornie Hospital in Dorchester and
Speaker 2: the Shoba Valley Medical Center in north central Massachusetts in
Speaker 2: the town of Ayr which is in Congressman Trahan's district,
Speaker 2: are slightly ac by August thirty first, because Stewart said
Speaker 2: they had failed to attract any qualified bids. This has
Speaker 2: caused a lot of consternation. The Healthy Administration says that
Speaker 2: they have worked very hard to resolve this as best
Speaker 2: they can under the circumstances. What I would like to
Speaker 2: do is open up the calls and allow you to
Speaker 2: comment on this. It is probably as good a resolution
Speaker 2: as we could possibly hope for. But my question is
Speaker 2: a more fundamental question, and I'd like to know if
Speaker 2: you agree with me, and that is, how is it
Speaker 2: that here in Massachusetts we claim to have the greatest
Speaker 2: medical facilities in the world. I mean, you've heard that claim.
Speaker 2: I've heard that claim made often by politicians, by business leaders,
Speaker 2: community leaders, that people come from around the world to
Speaker 2: be treated medically in Boston. How is it that we
Speaker 2: could allow here in Massachusetts all of these hospitals, these
Speaker 2: community hospitals, to fall under the control of an organization
Speaker 2: like Stuart, which obviously has failed us. Now, whether they
Speaker 2: have failed us intentionally, or whether they have failed us
Speaker 2: because they bid off, whether they could chew and it
Speaker 2: was negligent, that's ultimately going to be determined, I assume
Speaker 2: by grand juries and district attorneys and who knows, maybe
Speaker 2: even the US Attorney. But I just want to open
Speaker 2: up the phone lines. It's been a very interesting week
Speaker 2: to watch this evolve, and the Healey administration as of
Speaker 2: tonight basically says, yeah, we've done a good job in
Speaker 2: saving five of these hospitals, but at this point, actually
Speaker 2: six when you think about it, six of these hospitals,
Speaker 2: but two two have gone down the tubes or about
Speaker 2: to go down the tubes. Here's the phone number. We
Speaker 2: all talk about medical care. We always hear the politicians.
Speaker 2: You remember the debate over Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act
Speaker 2: are Romney here here in Massachusetts. Frankly, I think most
Speaker 2: of us hear the debate, and I don't think we
Speaker 2: understand the debate. In my opinion, we don't understand what
Speaker 2: the implications are, and we just go along with it.
Speaker 2: I think the medical system in this country is way
Speaker 2: too confusing, way too confusing, And I'd like to hear
Speaker 2: from you. Are you satisfied with the medical system that
Speaker 2: we're dealing with here in America? We are not a
Speaker 2: third world country, ladies and gentlemen. We need more doctors,
Speaker 2: we need better control of funding, we need more responsibility
Speaker 2: from our politicians. I don't think most of these politicians
Speaker 2: understand what's going on here. Now you might say, well,
Speaker 2: if they don't understand, who is going to understand. I
Speaker 2: think the people who understand that are the corporate people
Speaker 2: for the hospitals. Here's the number six one seven, four
Speaker 2: ten thirty, six one seven two five four ten thirty
Speaker 2: and six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. Are
Speaker 2: you satisfied with the medical care you're receiving here in Massachusetts?
Speaker 2: As I told you, I talked with a dear friend
Speaker 2: of mine today who is anything but satisfied with the
Speaker 2: medical care she's receiving. And she's a former big time nurse,
Speaker 2: so she knows the failings of the system. But the
Speaker 2: system is doing more than just failing her it fails.
Speaker 2: Lots and lots of people. We have politicians who say, hey,
Speaker 2: come one, come on, come on into the state. It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. Those are people who are now sitting in
Speaker 2: our emergency rooms and are tying up emergency rooms. Let's
Speaker 2: let's hear from you. Whatever your point of view is,
Speaker 2: this is one where I think all points of view
Speaker 2: should be on the table. Let's have at it for
Speaker 2: the next hour or so. Coming up at ten o'clock,
Speaker 2: I liked, I will switch topics. I'm going to raise
Speaker 2: the possibility that it's that it's possible. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: it's probable, but it's possible. Donald Trump could find himself
Speaker 2: in jail or running for the presidency in the final
Speaker 2: weeks of this campaign. Wouldn't that be something? And then
Speaker 2: in the eleven o'clock hour tonight, I want to know
Speaker 2: what is left on your bucket list for the summer
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four. What do you want to accomplish
Speaker 2: this summer that you thought about, maybe you've already planned.
Speaker 2: What are you going to try to get accomplished this
Speaker 2: summer before Oh Columbus Day weekend. Back on nightside, Let's
Speaker 2: talk hospitals. Let's talk medical care. It affects us all.
Speaker 2: It may not affect you now if you're thirty five
Speaker 2: and you're not seeing your doctor every year because you're
Speaker 2: in fine health and you go to the gym and
Speaker 2: all of that, but it all it catches up with everyone.
Speaker 2: Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one,
Speaker 2: ten thirty Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 3: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 3: Nightside Studios on w News.
Speaker 2: We're here, all right, let's go to the phones here.
Speaker 2: We have rich in Wellesley. Tough to read that screen there, Rob,
Speaker 2: but that's okay. We got rich and Wellesley. Rich going
Speaker 2: to start us off this hour talking about the apparent
Speaker 2: resolution of well for some of the hospitals of this crisis,
Speaker 2: the Stewart healthcare crisis. Go right ahead, Rich.
Speaker 4: By Dan Good Show.
Speaker 5: Two things. I had an idea that obviously the legislature
Speaker 5: is a farce and they don't know what they're doing,
Speaker 5: and you know, if they did, this wouldn't happen. But
Speaker 5: an idea that maybe we could get some business people
Speaker 5: that would volunteer five or six of them and they
Speaker 5: would look at certain programs in this state and say,
Speaker 5: you know what, We're not going to let them buy
Speaker 5: more than three because this is whether it's Enron or
Speaker 5: all these other corporations. They come in, they take everything out,
Speaker 5: they buy it, then they turn around and sell the
Speaker 5: best pots off and now they're going into bankruptcy. First
Speaker 5: of all, they ever should have owned all these hospitals.
Speaker 5: I was actually born at Saint Elizabeth. It was a
Speaker 5: great hospital, and all these hospitals years ago ran very well.
Speaker 5: They didn't have these problems that they do. Know, and
Speaker 5: these people that are taking them over dat crooks and
Speaker 5: they ought to go to jail.
Speaker 2: Well they may, I mean you as I understand that
Speaker 2: there's some grand juries that are looking at all of this.
Speaker 2: Certainly regulators are concerned about it. So yeah, that's that's
Speaker 2: entirely possible. What my concern is that I don't remember
Speaker 2: it being this confusing in terms of getting medical care.
Speaker 2: I obviously am in the wrong side of fifty, but
Speaker 2: the idea of you know, I don't know where we
Speaker 2: went wrong in terms of medical care. I can remember
Speaker 2: as a little boy being sick. At one point I
Speaker 2: had scarlet fever and we had a doctor who made
Speaker 2: house calls literally, doctor Lewis bluestein Nyde Park made a
Speaker 2: house made house calls. I don't know what happened to
Speaker 2: that model, Okay, I don't. Doctors tell me, and I'd
Speaker 2: love to hear from you who are doctors on this
Speaker 2: or oh who know doctors? Doctors tell me that that
Speaker 2: they spend too much time writing reports and filling out
Speaker 2: records every every facility that now I'm associated with, you
Speaker 2: have to go into some sort of computer to find
Speaker 2: out when your uh, when your appointments are, who you are.
Speaker 5: They have they have twice the staff now that they
Speaker 5: used to. My doctor just left New Welsey's in there
Speaker 5: twenty five years and he went to Route nine and
Speaker 5: they have like nine people on the staff for I
Speaker 5: think three doctors plus two people in billings just to
Speaker 5: run that. If you go to newt Wellsey right now,
Speaker 5: it'll take you around four hours in the emergency room.
Speaker 5: And three years ago I went to Mass General with
Speaker 5: a hot condition and I was on a gurney out
Speaker 5: in the hall for eleven hours.
Speaker 2: I've heard I've heard simil I've heard similar stories, absolutely
Speaker 2: similar stories. I have at times been in the er
Speaker 2: at Wellesley Hospital and I haven't found it to be
Speaker 2: a particularly a pleasant experience. To be really honest with you, Now,
Speaker 2: maybe those hospitals are just overwhelmed on any given night
Speaker 2: that there's too many automobile accidents or whatever. Maybe maybe
Speaker 2: they're not staffed up properly. If you heard during last
Speaker 2: hour we talked with a physician or doctor from the
Speaker 2: chan Harvard School of Public Health. My understanding is that
Speaker 2: the organized medicine in this in this country, in the
Speaker 2: person of the A m A, basically somehow is able
Speaker 2: to prevent more medical schools from being open. Do you
Speaker 2: know how many doctors are admitted? How many physician patients
Speaker 2: are admitted at the University of Massachusetts Medical School every year?
Speaker 5: Take a guess how many are admitted.
Speaker 6: I'll say one hundred and twenty.
Speaker 5: Oh, my god, that's at one hundred and twenty.
Speaker 2: Okay, you know how much money we spend here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: We have a state budget of fifty eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2: We can't train more than one hundred and twenty doctors.
Speaker 5: And we've got some of the best schools in the country.
Speaker 7: Oh.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and no, no, it's extraordinarily competitive. I can tell
Speaker 2: you that that I've known young students from Massachusetts. As
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, one student, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: identify that student. It was a brilliant student at Boston College,
Speaker 2: just top grades at Boston College. His father is a surgeon.
Speaker 2: He could not get into the U mathematical school. He
Speaker 2: could not This kid was eminently qualified, with a pedigree,
Speaker 2: a family pedigree of a dad who was a surgeon.
Speaker 2: He ended up going to a US you know, American
Speaker 2: based hospital. But there are a lot of kids who
Speaker 2: go to these hospitals that are offshore and they're learning
Speaker 2: to become doctors, not at American facilities that they're they're
Speaker 2: learning offshore. Why are we not training more doctors.
Speaker 5: We have more foreign people coming in with money that
Speaker 5: can do things. But the real thing, dan is, just
Speaker 5: comes down to a couple of things. The hospitals in
Speaker 5: the last twenty years have been run by greed, just
Speaker 5: like the insurance companies. That's why the insurance companies started
Speaker 5: taking over the hospitals because they realized they could make
Speaker 5: a profit twenty years ago. And I've had doctors tell
Speaker 5: me this. So bottom line is it's greed and money.
Speaker 5: And then it's as I said, they buy these places,
Speaker 5: they take out the best parts and then they turn
Speaker 5: around and they file bankruptcy and they walk away with
Speaker 5: their money. But none of these guys running these places
Speaker 5: are going to lose the millions of dollars that they've lost.
Speaker 5: Where they you know, where they go to jail. As
Speaker 5: far as New Welsey, I've been there twenty times in
Speaker 5: the last fifteen years. And up until three years ago,
Speaker 5: the emergency room was really good. The problem is you
Speaker 5: can't get the nurses. All these places just have a
Speaker 5: nursing school was Sale had one gentleman.
Speaker 2: General, Regis College and Regions has one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, then they all have them for two years and
Speaker 5: three years and four years. Former relative went to Northeast
Speaker 5: and got her degree, you know, for four years, and
Speaker 5: there's an RN for twenty five years. But they came
Speaker 5: along a few years ago and they said to her,
Speaker 5: you've got twenty five years. We'll buy you out right
Speaker 5: now for one hundred thousand on the dot in the
Speaker 5: next five days if you want to leave, why because
Speaker 5: she's too expensive to keep and her medicals too expensive
Speaker 5: to keep. So they hire somebody else for you know,
Speaker 5: there's three years. The other thing I don't off you
Speaker 5: realize it is we have a lot of traveling nurses
Speaker 5: to come to Massachusetts because.
Speaker 2: A bunch of aspects of this story that we're just
Speaker 2: scraping the surface here, and.
Speaker 5: I appreciate it comes down to just money. Dan, if
Speaker 5: we could get some people, as they said, volunteering and
Speaker 5: in real business sense that aren't politicians, that don't have
Speaker 5: to answer to anybody. I mean, if you heard a
Speaker 5: great man just passed. He was one of the most
Speaker 5: fantastic men I've ever met. If you had five Jack
Speaker 5: Bonnets to work in the system, the whole system would
Speaker 5: change in five years. I mean, that's the kind of
Speaker 5: quality that used to be around, that was helping a
Speaker 5: lot of you know, different.
Speaker 8: Groups.
Speaker 2: Well let's let's let's I'm up in the nine thirty news.
Speaker 2: Let us continue our conversation. But I'm hoping others will
Speaker 2: join this conversation and point out some improvements that can
Speaker 2: be made, because well, the baby boomer generation is only
Speaker 2: getting older. There's more care that's going to be needed.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, if our system here in Massachusetts is
Speaker 2: a mess, and I'm beginning to think it's more of
Speaker 2: a mess than we realize, than than what it will bad.
Speaker 4: Dan.
Speaker 5: But if you go south. To go south, it'll be worse.
Speaker 5: But I appreciate your time.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you taking the time to call it.
Speaker 2: Rick, appreciate it very very much. Rich, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Talk to you soon. Good night. Six seven two ten thirty,
Speaker 2: triple eight nine two nine ten thirty and six one
Speaker 2: seven nine three one ten thirty. I will tell you
Speaker 2: we will talk about this until ten o'clock. At ten
Speaker 2: o'clock we will change topics, so we're not going to
Speaker 2: go two hours on this one. Right now, I would
Speaker 2: love to hear from as many of you who might
Speaker 2: be involved in the medical community, get your reaction to
Speaker 2: the to the angst that so many people have gone
Speaker 2: through in the last month or so with the Steward crisis,
Speaker 2: which apparently for some of these hospitals has been resolved tonight,
Speaker 2: but they're two for which there is no resolution, the
Speaker 2: Cornie Hospital and the Nashoba Valley Hospital and Air both
Speaker 2: are destined to close by the end of this month.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of hospital space here in the state
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts. Feel free if you're a nurse, if you're
Speaker 2: a doctor, and and you want to give us some
Speaker 2: suggestions as what needs to be done. So we can
Speaker 2: avoid the next crisis. That's what I'm talking about our nightside.
Speaker 2: But coming back right after.
Speaker 1: This, you're on the night Side with Dan Ray on
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Some strong words there from the airtowle manager, and again
Speaker 2: it's you know, I don't want to leave this at
Speaker 2: the feet of this governor because I think this predated
Speaker 2: this governor. In fairness to this governor, but somehow, some way,
Speaker 2: we got to get ahead of these problems so people
Speaker 2: don't have to deal with these problems. Let me go
Speaker 2: next to Mark in Clinton, Massachusetts. Mark, you and next
Speaker 2: on nightside. Thanks for calling.
Speaker 8: In Yallo, Dan, how are you Mark?
Speaker 2: I'm doing fine. Thank you for joining us. Go right
Speaker 2: ahead by Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's got a few things. First off, I actually
Speaker 8: talked to my doctor about this, and he said this
Speaker 8: was maybe a month ago, and he said, he goes,
Speaker 8: this happens not frequently, but once in a while, and
Speaker 8: he goes, what's probably gonna happen is kind of like
Speaker 8: what's already happening is they're gonna they're gonna either get
Speaker 8: bought by another company or they're gonna merge with somebody,
Speaker 8: and he goes, So, so from that from that perspective,
Speaker 8: it's you know, I guess it'll get solved. But the
Speaker 8: course there's gonna be hospitals that close.
Speaker 2: Connie and Dorchester will apparently will close end the Shova
Speaker 2: Valley up in Air, which is not that far from you,
Speaker 2: by the way.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I know, I know exactly where that where that
Speaker 8: place is. I think I might have been there once
Speaker 8: or twice for appointments or whatnot.
Speaker 2: But from the end of August, you won't be there anymore.
Speaker 8: Go ahead, Mark, But uh, I think a major part,
Speaker 8: uh part of it too is I mean, I'm not
Speaker 8: that old, but when I when I was a kid,
Speaker 8: when you went to the doctor, there was the secretary,
Speaker 8: there was a nurse that did your vitals, and then
Speaker 8: there was your doctor. And now there's like eight levels
Speaker 8: of There's a one lady checks your temperature, one lady
Speaker 8: checks your weight. Then there's a person that you talk
Speaker 8: to in the office isn't even a nurse, he's like
Speaker 8: a nurse's assistant. And then they got there's there's too much.
Speaker 8: You know. The way I look at it is the
Speaker 8: difference between a big corporation, like say a big box store,
Speaker 8: and a small a small store is, you know, and
Speaker 8: I've worked at both types of places, and when you
Speaker 8: work at a smaller store, you know, the chain of
Speaker 8: command is right there. Whereas you work in a big location,
Speaker 8: there's people that don't know what's going on because hey,
Speaker 8: that's that's not my department. I don't know what's going on,
Speaker 8: and I have no al.
Speaker 2: Well, it's also runs up expenses. A lot of doctors
Speaker 2: who I've talked to. I don't say a lot, but
Speaker 2: some doctors who I've talked to, and one doctor in
Speaker 2: particularly who I know who is a great doctor. I
Speaker 2: decided after the COVID situation that there was just too
Speaker 2: much paperwork. He was a doctor in his prime. And
Speaker 2: you know, we can't be losing doctors, and we cannot
Speaker 2: with an aging and a growing population. We need more
Speaker 2: medical students graduating here in America. We don't need doctors
Speaker 2: com I mean, look, if they're going to bring people
Speaker 2: in the country, I would prefer them be doctors and nurses.
Speaker 2: I've said that all along. But given a choice between
Speaker 2: an American trained doctor and a doctor trained from anywhere
Speaker 2: else in the world, I'll take the American trained doctor,
Speaker 2: particularly the primary care physicians.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think my opinion with d is in these countries,
Speaker 8: and I think a lot of them are coming from
Speaker 8: India and the Philippines and maybe other Asian countries, it's cheaper.
Speaker 8: It's you know that over in some of those countries
Speaker 8: it's not a great place to work or live, but
Speaker 8: education might be cheaper. Whereas over here, you want to
Speaker 8: go to medical school, well, I don't know, it's hard
Speaker 8: to get in. It's half a million dollars and this,
Speaker 8: that and the other thing, and so we don't make
Speaker 8: it easy to become a doctor here.
Speaker 2: Right, But what I mean is who is who is
Speaker 2: choking that pipeline. My understanding is the American Medical Association
Speaker 2: does not want to see more medical schools in the
Speaker 2: United States. And all I said, well, I just said
Speaker 2: last hour. I happen to know this for a fact.
Speaker 2: At UMass Medical School, okay, which is the state's medicals. Now,
Speaker 2: there's a medical school at Boston University, is a medical
Speaker 2: school at Harvard. I get all of that. But at
Speaker 2: the State College U Mass Medical one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: students in the first year class. We could we should
Speaker 2: be able to train three to four hundred students qualified
Speaker 2: students right here in Massachusetts. Why is it.
Speaker 8: I mean, obviously, like the last caller said, the bottom line,
Speaker 8: it's money. But I've also I talked to another doctor
Speaker 8: just in the past and they were telling me, and
Speaker 8: this was an older doctor who's probably been a doctor
Speaker 8: since the nineteen seventies or whatever. And he goes, back,
Speaker 8: when I started, you'd get you know, half an hour
Speaker 8: with your patient, you'd really listen to them. And he goes, Now,
Speaker 8: the insurance companies want everybody in and out and in
Speaker 8: and out, and it's kind of a it's a money factory,
Speaker 8: you know. And so I hear you, I really hear you.
Speaker 2: And I've experienced that. I've experienced that myself. I had
Speaker 2: trouble finding a doctor a few years ago when my
Speaker 2: doctors informed me reluctantly that he had decided to give
Speaker 2: up the practice. And I called a doctor that was
Speaker 2: relatively close by, you know, not next door, around the corner,
Speaker 2: and I was told, well, I couldn't get an appointment
Speaker 2: for an interview for three or four months, you know.
Speaker 2: And I guess each of you would have decided whether
Speaker 2: or not I was acceptable as a patient.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's getting ridiculous in the sense that I've
Speaker 8: noticed and we've all experienced this. You go to the doctors,
Speaker 8: you have a ten o'clock appointment, they don't see it
Speaker 8: till eleven o'clock because they're back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's true too. But the other thing is
Speaker 2: if you come here as a migrant and you have
Speaker 2: a headache, go to the emergency room. It will cost
Speaker 2: you nothing and you'll get priority treatment. That's what we're
Speaker 2: doing here now.
Speaker 8: And my thing with the timing is I think it's
Speaker 8: this is my opinion. I don't have any proof of
Speaker 8: this is I think because doctors get paid per patient
Speaker 8: from insurance companies, whether it be Mass Health or exactly,
Speaker 8: and they can say, oh, well we're gonna help. I
Speaker 8: can really see three people in our I'll pencil in
Speaker 8: twelve and I'll make an extra thousand bucks today, So
Speaker 8: what you know, And it's just not you know, it's
Speaker 8: the way I look at how care might not be
Speaker 8: good for business, but I think healthcare is first prior.
Speaker 8: They should be taking care of the patient. It shouldn't
Speaker 8: be Look, that's how much money we can.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Mark, I got to keep running here because they
Speaker 2: got other calls. They got to get to a great call.
Speaker 8: You have a good night and maybe next trip you
Speaker 8: go on, I'll be there with you.
Speaker 2: All right, Mike, love to have that happen, absolutely, Thank
Speaker 2: you so much. Let me go next to David in
Speaker 2: San Francisco. David next on Nightside. Maybe you got to
Speaker 2: turn that radio down. Let's put David on hold. Let's
Speaker 2: go to Chris and Chelmstitch. Chris, you're next on Nightside.
Speaker 2: Go right ahead, Chris.
Speaker 6: I hope they am a philanthropy. Philanthropist to get the
Speaker 6: starts at these hospitals that are closing.
Speaker 2: Well, well, that's pie in the sky. Chris. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I I don't think that there's anybody out there.
Speaker 2: I don't think that Warren Buffett is going to spend
Speaker 2: a billion dollars to educate doctors to put them in
Speaker 2: Countey Hospital or the Schouba Valley Medical Center. That's realistically
Speaker 2: what we have to do, in my opinion, is we
Speaker 2: have to have more medical schools so more kids can
Speaker 2: go through medical school and become doctors here in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: and state in Massachusetts and stay in Massachusetts. We're a state.
Speaker 2: We're a state. Think about it. We're a state of
Speaker 2: six point eight million people and our primary medical school,
Speaker 2: state medical school. The University of Massachusetts Medical School accepts
Speaker 2: our one hundred and twenty students every year. So that
Speaker 2: means at the end of three years or four years,
Speaker 2: you're turning out one hundred and twenty interns or one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty residents for a six point seven or
Speaker 2: six point eight million people. That doesn't work.
Speaker 6: I agree with that. I cannot believe.
Speaker 2: That it's all true. Those numbers are true. I know
Speaker 2: the population to.
Speaker 6: His staff from her last week at where I worked,
Speaker 6: and she's going to Johnson and Wales for a medical school.
Speaker 2: Well, I thought of Johnson and Wales as a you know,
Speaker 2: as a you know, hospitality school where you learn to
Speaker 2: become a great chef and all of that. I didn't realize.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that the same thing.
Speaker 2: We gotta have. Look, kids are going I'm telling you
Speaker 2: right now, there are thousands of American kids who are
Speaker 2: learning medicine, learning medicine at at what we call offshore
Speaker 2: medical schools in places like Grada. There they are huge
Speaker 2: facilities and they're turning out great doctors. But but why
Speaker 2: are they being educated offshore? Because they don't have enough
Speaker 2: seats for them here?
Speaker 6: Good question.
Speaker 8: A very good question.
Speaker 2: That's the problem, Chris. I appreciate your call and pass
Speaker 2: my break and I gotta let you run. But thanks
Speaker 2: for picking up your phone. O evening you two, Chris.
Speaker 2: Thanks man. Six one seven two Okay, have a great
Speaker 2: one six one seven, two five four to ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Got a couple of lines open. Gonna wrap this up
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock. We're going to go to the possibility
Speaker 2: that one of the presidential candidates, and it's not Kamala Harris, uh,
Speaker 2: one of the presidential candidates, namely namely Donald Trump, might
Speaker 2: spend the last few weeks of this presidential campaign sitting
Speaker 2: in jail. Uh. You think that's beyond the realm of possibility,
Speaker 2: think again. Six one seven, two, five four to ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. This is
Speaker 2: one of those topics that affect all of us. So
Speaker 2: if you're in the medical field and you are courageous
Speaker 2: enough to call in, I'd appreciate it. If you're someone
Speaker 2: who wants to add to the conversation, I got some
Speaker 2: room for you as well. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 3: Now back to Dan Way Live from the Window World,
Speaker 3: Nice Sight Studios. I'm WBZ News radio.
Speaker 2: Back, we go to the phones. Let's tried David in
Speaker 2: San Francisco again, David, we missed it before you're up
Speaker 2: at back. Go ahead, David.
Speaker 7: Oh, thanks, it's good to be missed. You know, I
Speaker 7: don't know if you've ever read the.
Speaker 2: You missed us Go ahead.
Speaker 7: I don't know if you've ever read the original Hippocratic Oath.
Speaker 7: But this has been going on for I think he
Speaker 7: was twenty four hundred years ago, and this problem no
Speaker 7: hard that long.
Speaker 2: First, for those in the audience who do not know
Speaker 2: what the Hippocratic oath, it's first, do no harm? Go ahead, David.
Speaker 7: Well, that's a part of it. And if you read
Speaker 7: the original one, Richard Nixon and John Erlickman tried to
Speaker 7: change it back.
Speaker 2: And you know what, David, David, do me a favorite
Speaker 2: if you want to. It's a political Why don't you
Speaker 2: just hang the phone up on me before we give
Speaker 2: you the plank. Let's let's talk about what's going on
Speaker 2: today with medical care in this country and what we
Speaker 2: can do to turn it around.
Speaker 7: Dan, you ever hear a bout profiteering.
Speaker 2: We've talked about that. We've talked about that. David, I'm
Speaker 2: not stupid. Go to the plank Rob, put him in
Speaker 2: the water. If one we need the plank Rob. Thank you,
Speaker 2: Thank you, Davey appreciated. Let me go next to Gerald
Speaker 2: and the cap. Gerald, he's gonna he's gonna bring up
Speaker 2: Richard Nixon and John Erlickman, who have been dead now
Speaker 2: for about fifty years. Okay, Gerald, go right ahead.
Speaker 4: Oh this is Gerald. I'm certainly not going to bring
Speaker 4: up any politics. But I actually practiced neurosurgery at UMass
Speaker 4: at Saint Vincent's Hospital in for thirty years.
Speaker 2: Thank you for thank you for doing that. Doctor right ahead.
Speaker 4: So I did not go to our state's medical school.
Speaker 4: I went to Tufts Medical School. I was a jumbo.
Speaker 4: It's great medical school. And to pay for that medical school,
Speaker 4: I went to the United States Navy and paid four years,
Speaker 4: paid paid my country back for four years, which was fantastic.
Speaker 4: And there are there are there are ways to go
Speaker 4: to medical school and and not end up owing a
Speaker 4: great deal of money. And joining the military or public
Speaker 4: health service is one great, great way.
Speaker 2: To do it.
Speaker 4: But it's very interesting listening to your your people that
Speaker 4: called in earlier, because clearly there are layers of individually
Speaker 4: individuals that you now see in the system. That's both clinically,
Speaker 4: as someone said, someone takes the blood pressure, someone takes
Speaker 4: the pulse, someone runs your list of medications and puts
Speaker 4: them in the computer, and you wonder who's paying for
Speaker 4: all these people. The other fat in the system is
Speaker 4: the administrators. There's an incredible amount of fat in the
Speaker 4: medical administrative system. So really the people that are actually
Speaker 4: out there taking care of the patients are very limited.
Speaker 4: And also in the layer is what has happened is
Speaker 4: is you're spot on. You aren't enough doctors and for
Speaker 4: some reason, we have come to a country now where
Speaker 4: we want to have quote a lot of quote providers,
Speaker 4: and these providers go to go to go to PA school,
Speaker 4: they go to nursing school and become nurse practitioners. That's
Speaker 4: very expensive for them too. So you're spot on. They
Speaker 4: really don't have enough medical schools. Number one and number two,
Speaker 4: they don't have enough slots in these medical schools.
Speaker 2: So so first of all, again, thank you for both
Speaker 2: your military service and your service UH and urs as
Speaker 2: a neurosurgeon. And I am always amazed the quality of
Speaker 2: the calls UH in spite of the caller who preceded
Speaker 2: you that we normally receive here on our program. So
Speaker 2: I thank you for your for your for your taking
Speaker 2: the time tonight. My question is this, I know that
Speaker 2: the that the number of slots at U Mass Medical
Speaker 2: School is one hundred and twenty. I know that I
Speaker 2: know of a young man who end up going to
Speaker 2: University of Saint Louis Medical School Washington Medical School in
Speaker 2: Saint Louis, Missouri, which is a great medical school. There
Speaker 2: was no room for him here in Boston, I should say,
Speaker 2: at U Mass even though his dad was a surgeon
Speaker 2: here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: Well, Dan, that's very It's one of the most highly
Speaker 4: competitive schools in the country. Yes, for a Massachusetts applicant,
Speaker 4: because of the fact that it isn't very expensive if
Speaker 4: you are a Massachusetts residence to go to medical school
Speaker 4: at UMSS.
Speaker 2: Right. But my question, I'm going to call you a
Speaker 2: doctor even though you come up here as Gerald. My
Speaker 2: question is why have we not anticipated the shortage of doctors.
Speaker 2: You know better than I do that there are a
Speaker 2: lot of really qualified potential medical students who are going
Speaker 2: to medical schools offshore in places like Grenade or and O.
Speaker 2: You know some of the Caribbean islands and they're coming
Speaker 2: back as well trained physicians. Don't get me wrong, but
Speaker 2: why is it that someone didn't say, hey, let's increase
Speaker 2: the enrollment not five years ago, fifteen, twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: Because we have an aging population, they're called the baby boomers.
Speaker 2: This was perfectly predictable. And now you add that the
Speaker 2: influx of migrants from other countries who are bringing medical
Speaker 2: issues in their problems to the country. The medical community
Speaker 2: is overwhelmed.
Speaker 4: I think, well, it certainly is in your totally one
Speaker 4: hundred percent correct. And another question is why you know again,
Speaker 4: people I work with a great number of pas and
Speaker 4: physicians physicians as system that is, and also a nurse practitioners.
Speaker 4: They might have been able to become mds and then
Speaker 4: they can probably do more. I see a lot of
Speaker 4: I love working with with mid level providers. They're wonderful. However,
Speaker 4: it does create that that a little bit extra communication,
Speaker 4: and I think it does create extra cost in the
Speaker 4: system too. So so it is so there's no question
Speaker 4: that that administrators have been caught making them. They made
Speaker 4: a poor decision in the past. They aren't enough medical
Speaker 4: schools and there aren't enough people. Enough slots and not
Speaker 4: enough people directed to medical schools. And if you know
Speaker 4: that with possible systems where there are significant regulations and
Speaker 4: costs and computer costs. So these small mum and pop
Speaker 4: places are closing down. So now you have the bigger,
Speaker 4: the bigger places that you're left with that they're challenging.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you go to UMass and you go
Speaker 4: into the emergency room, at least there was one like
Speaker 4: this when I retired. I mean they have they have
Speaker 4: slots which are called you know, hallway spots where people
Speaker 4: are on gurneys in the hallway. I think someone was
Speaker 4: mentioned that earlier in the show, and those I started
Speaker 4: in Worcester in nineteen eighty seven. And each time they
Speaker 4: open up in emergency room, believe it or not, the
Speaker 4: emergency rooms are busting at the seams, Saint Vincent's or
Speaker 4: you masked and they open up the emernsy room and
Speaker 4: they're still busting at the seams. So and so where
Speaker 4: the medical regulators? Why aren't they allowing you mass more
Speaker 4: spots more?
Speaker 2: My question is who is who is who is turning
Speaker 2: a blind eye to the crisis. My understanding is that
Speaker 2: the AMA basically approves medical school application met. When I
Speaker 2: say medical schools to build medical schools, and they they
Speaker 2: are choking the pipeline. Do you understand that to be true?
Speaker 2: Or am I missing?
Speaker 4: I wish I knew you know. My practice was was
Speaker 4: so busy because there were enough of us to go around.
Speaker 4: I spent most of my time, most of my time
Speaker 4: seeing patients and operating.
Speaker 2: Uh doctor, thank you very much for taking your time
Speaker 2: to talking again tonight. I really do appreciate it. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 4: So pleasure talking with you. Have a good evening.
Speaker 2: Thank thank you much. Katie in Westfood, We've run out
Speaker 2: of time. If you stay there, I will take you
Speaker 2: as one call on the other side because I do
Speaker 2: want to change topics. Rob, I'll take this other call
Speaker 2: as well because I think this is important. We then
Speaker 2: can get to the will Trump end up campaigning from
Speaker 2: jail issue? Next hour back on night's out After this