Travel Ban Would Hit LA’s Doctors Particularly Hard
"Los Angeles is actually the metro area in the United States which has the highest number of doctors from the banned countries," according to Jonathan Roth, a Harvard PhD student and one of the researchers who worked on the Immigrant Doctors Project.
KPCC:
Hundreds Of Doctors In LA County Could Be Affected By New Travel Ban
Among those who will feel the impact of President Trump's revised travel ban are hundreds of doctors in Los Angeles County who come from the six majority-Muslim countries named in his executive order... The executive order, which is due to go into effect on Thursday, temporarily blocks visas from being issued to citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen to "to protect the Nation from terrorist activities by foreign nationals." The ban does not include permanent residents and those who already have visas, but doctors applying for new visas or seeking to renew expired ones would require a waiver. (Lavender, 3/13)
In other medical personnel news —
Los Angeles Times:
Young Doctors Can Work 28 Hours Straight Under New Rules
Despite concerns from the public about safety, the private group that oversees physician training voted to allow young doctors to work shifts as long as 28 hours. The new rules, which begin on July 1, relax work restrictions put in place in 2011, when mounting evidence showed that exhausted residents — the term for doctors in training — were endangering both patients and themselves. Currently, first-year residents are restricted to 16-hour shifts. (Petersen, 3/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Sacramento Battle Over Telling Patients About Doctors’ Probation
Dr. Wanda Heffernon, a former UCSF anesthesiologist, made headlines in 2001 when she pleaded guilty to stealing credit cards from her fellow physicians and forging prescriptions to feed her drug addiction. While facing those charges, she worked as a physical therapist at a nursing home in San Mateo County, where she was accused — and later convicted — of elder abuse after prying a diamond wedding ring off a 94-year-old patient, bruising the woman’s finger in the process. The judge who sentenced Heffernon to two years in prison noted the extreme vulnerability of the victim and remarked that there was “a dark side to Ms. Heffernon that is difficult to fathom.” (Gutierrez, 3/10)