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“Families of about 110 children treated for leukemia at University of New Mexico Hospital thought their kids were getting state-of-the-art treatment. They were wrong, and UNM officials have acknowledged as much.”
That was written 11 years ago (www.abqjournal.com/news/cancer), by Colleen Heild, the same reporter who recently broke the story about Dr. Anne Marie Wallace’s allegations of substandard breast cancer care by Dr. John Russell, the chairman of the Department of Surgery at UNM.
Again we can anticipate UNM officials will stop short of telling the full story.
If these allegations are true, will those affected be informed so that they will not be subjected to the pain that comes from not knowing? Will we find out how many patients may have been given substandard breast cancer treatment as alleged? Will their survival rates be lower than those who received “standard of care” treatment?
Will New Mexico taxpayers once again shoulder tens of millions of dollars from the stream of malpractice claims that will likely result?
Eleven years ago, Dr. Paul Roth and other officials at UNM stated, “It won’t happen again. … The university also has put into writing a policy to ensure department chairmen adequately investigate complaints or concerns that arise about a physician.”
If the allegations are true, this policy failed because it did not provide any provisions to deal with complaints against a chairman that may be practicing bad medicine. It states that the chairman must notify the associate dean of clinical affairs.
Wallace stated in her lawsuit that she spoke with Dr. Bob Bailey, the associate dean of clinical affairs. Did he investigate?
Eleven years ago Roth also stated, “We have created an independent oversight system for monitoring quality of care and medical staff concerns … (we have) implemented a tracking system to monitor an individual physician’s patients. That review would consider factors like inpatient deaths. …”
Other than Wallace, who was tracking and monitoring Russell’s patients to ensure that they were getting the best care?
Externally, what is the role of the New Mexico Medical Board in investigating these allegations? Are there other federal or state regulatory agencies that should be investigating? If these allegations about Russell are true, do the people of New Mexico want that poor quality of leadership from their Department of Surgery?
Similarly, if the allegations against Dr. Ashwani Rajput are true, do the people of New Mexico want an unethical surgeon to lead our Department of Cancer Surgery?
Should Russell and Rajput continue to perform surgery while these serious allegations are unanswered?
To date, neither the University of New Mexico nor the Cancer Center has reached out to patients and families who may be troubled by this recent article. Where is the leadership in UNMH to embrace these concerns, inform potentially affected patients and listen in all languages to the responses?
The majority of Russell’s breast cancer patients are Native Americans, patients of color and immigrants.
Any concerned or affected patients or families may contact our office, and we will direct them to the appropriate resources until the University of New Mexico and the Cancer Center step up to their academic responsibility and Hippocratic Oath.
