U.S. Doctors Lack Whistleblower Protection
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Thousands of federal doctors and medical researchers who receive some of the highest salaries in government don't enjoy the same protections to blow the whistle on wrongdoing as other civil servants, a judge has ruled.
Administrative Judge Raphael Ben-Ami of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board ruled recently that Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, a National Institutes of Health
specialist, could not seek the board's protection from firing under the Whistleblower Protection Act.
Fishbein was hired by NIH in 2003 to help improve AIDS research practices. He alleges he is being fired because he uncovered concerns about sloppy research practices that might endanger patient safety. NIH said he is being fired for poor performance and that the allegations come from a "disgruntled" employee who failed to make his two-year probation period.
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The Associated Press reported last week that Fishbein was among several NIH employees who raised concerns in 2002 about a study in Africa involving the AIDS drug nevirapine.
Documents showed that the way the research was conducted violated federal patient safety rules and suffered from record-keeping and patient monitoring problems. But the study's general conclusion that the drug could be used safely in single doses to protect babies from HIV (news - web sites) was upheld.
Attorney Steve Kohn, who represents Fishbein, said federal agencies like NIH have markedly increased their recruitment and hiring of employees under Title 42 in recent years, leaving an entire class of federal workers without whistleblower protections.
"It's a game of cat and mouse, in which the real losers are the American people," Kohn said.
link
WASHINGTON - Thousands of federal doctors and medical researchers who receive some of the highest salaries in government don't enjoy the same protections to blow the whistle on wrongdoing as other civil servants, a judge has ruled.
Administrative Judge Raphael Ben-Ami of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board ruled recently that Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, a National Institutes of Health
specialist, could not seek the board's protection from firing under the Whistleblower Protection Act.
Fishbein was hired by NIH in 2003 to help improve AIDS research practices. He alleges he is being fired because he uncovered concerns about sloppy research practices that might endanger patient safety. NIH said he is being fired for poor performance and that the allegations come from a "disgruntled" employee who failed to make his two-year probation period.
...
The Associated Press reported last week that Fishbein was among several NIH employees who raised concerns in 2002 about a study in Africa involving the AIDS drug nevirapine.
Documents showed that the way the research was conducted violated federal patient safety rules and suffered from record-keeping and patient monitoring problems. But the study's general conclusion that the drug could be used safely in single doses to protect babies from HIV (news - web sites) was upheld.
Attorney Steve Kohn, who represents Fishbein, said federal agencies like NIH have markedly increased their recruitment and hiring of employees under Title 42 in recent years, leaving an entire class of federal workers without whistleblower protections.
"It's a game of cat and mouse, in which the real losers are the American people," Kohn said.
link
posted by Christine at Sunday, December 26, 2004
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