EXTRA...

Doctors here paid for "on call"; Raid changes New Bedford; USS Thresher sinking remembered

Hospitals break with ER tradition, doctors 'on call' get pay,
Cape Cod Hospital paying $1,000 for on-call shifts

Some Massachusetts hospitals have started paying surgeons and other medical specialists up to $1,000 for "on call" emergency room shifts, breaking with decades of medical tradition.  Until recently, specialists accepted on-call shifts in return for admitting privileges. But many now expect to be compensated for keeping their beepers on during nights and weekends. The change in the relationship between specialists and hospitals is being debated in the medical community, with some doctors viewing it as a betrayal of long-held values...

Without money as an incentive, an increasing number of physicians are less likely to want to go to an emergency room at 2 a.m. or on weekends, said Dr. Carlos Fonts , chief of surgery at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, which placed itself on the front edge of the trend last year when it began paying $500 to $1,000 to many specialists for on-call shifts. Cape Cod Hospital chief executive Stephen L. Abbott said its pay-for-call program will cost about $2 million this year...

Cape Cod Hospital has a two-tier system for the on-call payments. The least experienced specialists are expected to accept the duty without being paid. Dr. John Willis, a Hyannis orthopedic surgeon who graduated from medical school in 1993, said he will not qualify for compensation for two more years and is responsible for an emergency room shift every seven or eight days. As a result, he is considering cutting his ties to the hospital...  Read the rest of this Globe story here.
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Raid bares deep divide
In New Bedford, hard lines over illegal immigration

NEW BEDFORD -- To Cindy Tapper and her friends, gathered on black-upholstered banquettes at Shawmut Diner on a recent morning, the cause of New Bedford's economic woes was laid bare by a March 6 raid on a waterfront leather-goods factory and the arrest of 361 suspected illegal immigrants.

"I have a nephew who works at one of the fish plants," said Tapper, 56, a homemaker who grew up in the developments across the street from the diner. "Nobody showed up for work for a week after that ICE raid," she said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "ICE needs to come to New Bedford and set up shop. The illegal immigrants are using the hospitals as a doctor's office. They're putting a strain on the city of New Bedford."  If you want to know where the illegal immigrants are working, said Tapper's friend David Gould, 47, "look for the bicycles. They're lined up outside all the fish houses"...  Read the rest of this Globe story here.
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Thresher crew remembered on anniversary of tragedy
Nuclear sub sank off Cape 40 years ago

Much has changed in the more than four decades since the submarine USS Thresher and her crew have rested at the bottom of the Atlantic at a depth of 8,400 feet. But the lives of the 129 men who perished have not been forgotten. (Photo is Thresher underway at sea in 1961.)

"They are on eternal patrol," said Gary Hildreth, commander of the Thresher Base, during the 44th anniversary memorial service yesterday at R.W. Traip Academy in Kittery, Maine.  Hundreds of people are still touched by the tragedy, which occurred not far from Cape Cod on April 10, 1963, during deep-dive trials. A mechanical error caused the submarine to lose power, causing it to sink below crush depth.

John Cook, a former crew member, remembers the sinking as "devastating" and "kind of unbelievable."  Cook had left the Thresher three months before the accident to attend nuclear power school. He remembers the constant phone calls his mother received from worried friends after the news broke..  Read the rest of this Southcoast  story here.