Thursday, May 8, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.
A refusal by the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners to honor a request for records by Metro Police is earning harsh and well-deserved criticism.
Metro detectives asked for the records as part of their investigation into this year’s hepatitis C outbreak that has been traced to negligent medical practices at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, a Las Vegas outpatient clinic.
The detectives’ request was simple. They wanted copies of any complaints that had been filed with the board against Dr. Dipak Desai, majority owner of the Endoscopy Center.
Astonishingly, the board said no.
Las Vegas Sun reporter Marshall Allen, in a story Wednesday, recounted the reaction of Chief District Attorney Scott Mitchell, one of the prosecutors in the Desai case.
“I think they (the board members) are so far removed from what they’re supposed to be doing that it hasn’t occurred to them that they’re protection for the public, not interference for the doctors,” Mitchell said.
Allen also talked with Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, chairwoman of the Legislative Committee on Health Care. “Given the circumstances of this tragedy in Las Vegas ... I just find it appalling that they would throw up roadblocks to law enforcement getting what they need,” she said.
State law is crystal clear that the board has full authority to cooperate with police.
Responding to Allen’s story, Tony Clark, executive director of the Medical Examiners Board, said Wednesday afternoon that the Metro detectives would receive the requested records.
The police investigation is in response to the Feb. 27 announcement by Southern Nevada Health District officials that a hepatitis C outbreak eight cases have so far been confirmed had been traced to procedures at the Endoscopy Center during anesthesiology.
Syringes were routinely reused, as were vials with medicine left over from another patient’s injection. About 50,000 former patients of the now-closed center have been advised to get their blood tested.
Clark says he is now cooperating, but it remains utterly incomprehensible why the detectives’ initial request wasn’t honored immediately.
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