An unconventional local doctor will lose his license.
Jane Reporter has the story.
The state medical board has voted to revoke the license of a longtime city physician. For 25 years, Dr. John Doe has offered his patients a variety of treatments, including homeopathic remedies.
The board called Doe's methods unscientific and said they could harm patients.
The head of the medical board, Jane Smith, insisted that the action was not an attck on alternative medicine.
Smith sound/video bite:
"If you're licensed as a medical doctor and you follow good medical practice, and you want to try alternatives, that's fine. The problem begins when you don't follow good medical practice."
The most serious charge against Dr. Doe is that he treated patients for a specific disease without performing blood tests. An expert testified that such tests are necessary.
Doe defends his methods:
Doe video/sound bite:
"I look at myself as someone who tries to provide safe alternatives."
Doe's patients say that he is a compassionate healer and that he offers them alternatives. One patient, Jean Jones, is a staunch defender of the doctor:
Jones video/sound bite
It isn't that I object to going to regular doctors. It's that I want a choice."
Doe can continue treating patients until the end of the year.