John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” is known for its deep dives into myriad political battlegrounds, so when he seems especially taken aback—as he was when he heard a doctor say state medical boards are “not a substantial barrier” to negligent physicians continuing to practice—it’s worth a listen.
“It’s probably one of the least reassuring things a doctor could say, besides ‘oopsies!’ or ‘I’m running for Senate,’” Oliver said in this past Sunday’s episode, now streaming on Max.
The segment repeatedly praised the medical community as a whole, with Oliver highlighting only the most egregious examples of lax oversight. These included scenarios of clear negligence—drug use while practicing, physicians deemed dangers to the public—where the doctor in question was still practicing because no action was taken by a medical board. Even the usefulness of the National Practitioner Data Bank is limited by state policy on reporting.
“[S]ome states, including—until recently—Texas, even employ an honor-system approach, which relies on physicians to self-report. But guess what? The bad doctors tend not to do that, because they’re bad doctors,” said Oliver. “So unsurprisingly, when a Texas news station bothered to look into who was practicing in their state, they found 49 doctors who’d had their medical licenses suspended, surrendered or revoked in other states.”
If you don’t have Max, the segment is also available here.
Evan joined TriMed in 2011, writing primarily for Health Imaging. Prior to diving into medical journalism, Evan worked for the Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis. He also has worked in public relations and education. Evan studied journalism at the University of Missouri, with an emphasis on broadcast media.