Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-04-01
.INTERNES BLAME
POLITICAL PULL
COUNTY HOSPITAL TROUBLE
LAID TO APPOINTMENT
DESPAIR or FAIR PLAYAT SUPER.
WsoRS' HANDS
Say Assistant Superintendent Owes
His Position to Favoritism, and
Criticse Members of
Visiting Staff

The seven internes who this morning
will sever their connection with the
county hospital have decided that they
will not place their cases before the
board of supervisors They say they
cannot hope for an impartial hearing
inasmuch as they lay the trouble which
has resulted in their dismissal at the
door of Supervisor II. d. McCabe, since
last January he appointed DR.. L. G.
Finlay assistant superintendent
The internes will practice in and
about Los Angeles, and desire that the
public know the exact nature of the
circumstances that led to their dismiss
SAL so that it will not act as a detri-
ment to them.
The trouble at the county hospital
has been brewing since January, when
DR.. Finlay received his appointment
This, the internes declare, was a polit-
ical trick, engineered by Supervisor
McCabe. Ostensibly they are dismissed
because of the change in the superin-
tendency of the hospital. DR.. H. c.
Whitman today takes the place of DR.
D. c. Barber. But the internes declare
that such is not the case. and that
their designations were prepared, and
in the cases of Dr. Elmer Carter and
DR.. Ralph Newcomb, already had been
filed.
They unanimously express their APP
DrOVal or L0e Hl6LIlOQS Ill use anu liz
system employed at the hospital, and
have no desire to have their dismissal
reflect on the institution. but they are
Just as DESTROYS that it shall not reflect
on their abilities.
The inability of DR.. Finlay and the
internes to agree, the latter say, is the
whole cause of the trouble, although
there have been differences with mem
bers of the official staff of visiting
physicians.
Was Until Lately inferno
Until last January DR.. Finlay was an
inferno. His former associates say he
was not qualified for promotion, and
declare his actions since the appoint
ment have become unbearable.
Discussing the matter last night one
of the internes summed up the situation
as follows:
"Our dismissal from the medical staff
of the county hospital by the board OF
supervisors yesterday is the result of 2
long series of dissehsions. It's incep-
ton dates from the appointment of Dr.
IT. L. Finlay as assistant superintend-
emit. That office requires a physician
particularly fitted for the position by
virtue of long experience and scholarly
attachments, inasmuch as its occupar'
is often called into consultation by 9TH
err members of the staff.
Ut. F1Hidy 10 d IcCCiL
wholly without experience, and owes
his appointment to political preference
rather than ability. He is reported tc
be the appointee of Supervisor McCabe
chairman of the hospital committee
who naturally takes up his side of the
controversy. The house doctors re-
peatedly refused to carry out orders
given by him, because, in their judg-
ment, their administration would be
harmful.
Another cause of dissatisfaction lay
in the fact that certain membe s of the
visiting staff of physicians are general
" conceded by the profession to be
wholly incompetent. On several occa-
sions members of the house staff re.
fused to carry out orders given by these
doctors regarding certain patients
whom they have carefully watched
seeing them two to three times a day
as they believed such orders would
be deleterious.
Enter Vigorous Protest
"The internes are in strict accord
with the visiting plan, believing it tt
be conducive to highest efficiency, bu1
vigorously protest against the appoint
| ment of men to the visiting staff whom
the profession regards as butchers