You wrote: I am now considering taking the position that I will not be available as the child's care provider as long as a chiropractor is involved. Reply- The issue of dismissing patients from practice has come up a number of times on this list serve. I must say this confuses me terribly. I work with a disenfranchised population and have never dismissed a patient (also have never been in a truly personally dangerous situation with a family). No flames here, simply a request to hear rationales for dismissing patients, particularly children who cannot make their own health care decisions. Peg Fitzgerald Margaret A. Fitzgerald, MS, RN, CS- FNP President, Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Andover, MA Nurse Practitioner Board Certification Review Coast to Coast Pharmacology Update in Resort Locations Family Nurse Practitioner, Greater Lawrence (MA) Family Health Center 978.470.3412 Fax 978.470.2312 -----Original Message----- From: Steve Wainer [SMTP:] Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 1998 7:17 AM To: Subject: Pediatric Chiropractic At the risk of being flamed by devotees of the cult of chiropractic (this is a public forum after all), I am curious to know how colleagues deal with pediatric patients who are having their spines manipulated for all manner of problems. Today I nearly blew a blood vessel listening to mother tell me how she was having her son's Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder "treated" with chiropractic manipulation. Of course the "professional" concerned assured mom that the son's deviant behavior was all a result of unbalanced spinal nerves and that he was happy to take her money to "correct" this. This type of nonsense all of us see daily. Yesterday it was the infant having spinal manipulation for colic, then the kid with recurrent Otitis etc etc. I am now considering taking the position that I will not be available as the child's care provider as long as a chiropractor is involved. Locally this is becoming an important issue as chiropractors can bill the public health care system for pediatric care - a colossal waste of money. Our radiologists are now refusing to accept X-ray requests from "pediatric" chiropractors and our local pediatric society is supporting this stand publicly. What do others think? Steve Steve Wainer MD FRCPC Calgary