Funny thing happened on the way to an article…

I got a request from my editor a few days ago.

Reasonably simple, please get short opinions from doctors on what they think about health care.

A vague questions to be sure. Refine it a little. What do you think should be done about health care? About six opinions in a short paragraph each.

So… I got one from a clinic administrator. Another from the county public health director, an RN. One more from an Osteopath who doesn’t practice now. (He’s busy building attended care homes and such.)

I stopped off at the local Innovis clinic.

“Well, some of the doctors would like to talk to you, but we have to check with HQ in Fargo to see if they’ll let us. We’ll get back to you.”

I’m still waiting.

Doctors in another clinic attached, but not part of the local hospital, were all too busy at the times I called. Messages asking them to get back to me, have gone unanswered.

The short article is on hold. Probably scrapped.

Now, organizations understandably don’t want newspaper readers to get the idea that a doc giving an opinion is not speaking for the org. I understand that.

And yet, am I paranoid or does it seem like docs seem a tad timid about expressing an opinion on this issues these days?