|
Whistle-blower Protection Lacking for Physicians
Posted by
Rosemary Gafner
on
Saturday, April 29, 2006 (UMST)
Federal doctors and medical researchers do not come under the same protections as other civil servants...
|
|
A judge recently ruled that thousands of federal doctors and medical researchers who receive some of the highest salaries in government do not have the same protections for blowing the whistle on wrongdoing as other civil servants. This was noticed when Administrative Judge Raphael Ben-Ami of the US Merit Systems Protection Board ruled that Jonathan Fishbein (National Institute of Health (NIH) specialist), couldn't seek the board's protection from firing under the Whistleblower Protection Act. Fishbein, alleges he was fired because he uncovered concerns about sloppy research practices that could be a risk to patient safety. NIH said Fishbein was fired for poor performance. Fishbein, and several other NIH employees, raised concerns in 2002 about a study in Africa involving nevirapine, an AIDS drug. Documents uncovered record-keeping and patient monitoring problems and showed that research methodology violated federal patient-safety rules. Even though the study's conclusion that the drug could be used safely in single doses to protect babies from HIV was upheld.
|
|