Senators Ronnie Chance and Mitch Seabaugh have sided with the greedy trial lawyers against my patients’ access to specialists in the emergency department.

For several years, the specialists I need for my patients to see after I have stabilized them have been dropping off the on-call roster for the hospitals.

It is perfectly understandable why they have done so. The emergency patients they were caring for were often unable to pay the bill, but the physicians still had to pay extravagant professional liability insurance fees to defend against frivolous lawsuits brought on by the greedy trial lawyers.

Anyone with any business sense would realize a physician couldn’t stay in business in that environment.

When no specialist was on call, I would often have to transfer my unstable patient to Atlanta, or Augusta or even Birmingham.

Imagine if you or your mother had a simple hip fracture that could easily be fixed at the local hospital, but due to not having a specialist in orthopedics on call, would have to travel several counties away or even out of state to have your operation.

Two years ago the Georgia legislature wisely passed some laws that “leveled the playing field” between doctors and the greedy trial lawyers. One of the laws passed appropriately diminished the number of frivolous lawsuits for any physician involved in the emergency care of the patient.

Because of that law, the on-call specialists are returning to the call roster. They still may not get paid by the patient, but the liability insurance rates have stabilized in Georgia and if all the provisions of the “tort reform package” are held up in court, the insurers promise reductions in costs. This means lower costs for the patients.

The greedy trial lawyers via Senator Seth Harp of Columbus have introduced a Senate bill to do away with the reform that has been good for my patients. Senators Chance and Seabaugh have signed on the bill with Senator Harp.

I want my family and my patients to have access to specialists here in our communities when we have emergencies. Don’t you?

Robert J. Cox, MD, FAAEM, FACEP

Barnesville, Ga.