I have been writing a fair bit about some of the many things that the VA has done for the field of healthcare and particularly quality and safety. This system is under some threat with potential cuts to staff and services. In response, some individuals in that system wrote an article and submitted it to the New England Journal of Medicine. It is an opinion piece but it makes some excellent points about what is happening.
This article can be found at the this link. To fully read the article you do have to set up an account, but there is reasonable amounts of free content that might be of interest to some. The article discusses the risks to VA programs because of proposed cuts to staff and budgets. It is worth a read.
But what struck me the most about this article is that the author’s had the courage to both write this article, but then also add their names. In fact, all they are doing is offering an opinion about what is happening at the VA. I happen to agree with this, but even if I didn’t, these people should be able to express opinions without fear. But my first reaction to reading this article was to feel amazement that they had the courage to write this.
To achieve safer care for our patients, we need this kind of courage. Good for them.