Sun, Mar 30, 2008 (2:08 a.m.)

Gov. Jim Gibbons suddenly reversed himself Friday on his earlier demand for the resignations of three doctors from the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners.

The issue arose March 16, when Gibbons called upon Drs. Javaid Anwar, S. Daniel McBride and Sohail Anjum to resign their board positions in the wake of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada crisis.

Gibbons’ call was his first — very belated — public involvement in the crisis, which was announced Feb. 27 by the Southern Nevada Health District. The Endoscopy Center’s medical staff had been reusing syringes as well as vials of medicine clearly marked for one-time use.

The Health District traced six cases of hepatitis C to the center’s unsafe practices and notified 40,000 of the center’s former patients that they should have their blood checked because they could have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

The Medical Examiners Board was one of many agencies announcing that it would investigate the Endoscopy Center. On March 14 the three doctors recused themselves to avoid conflicts of interest, and the board asked Gibbons to name replacements from Northern Nevada who did not have any conflicts.

Two days later a grandstanding Gibbons refused that seamless option and called for the three doctors to resign, saying they had publicly acknowledged having conflicts with the Endoscopy Center. Their recusals weren’t enough, he said, because that would leave the board with just six voting members. Disputing that he had the authority to appoint temporary members, he insisted on the resignations so he could appoint three new permanent members.

State law, however, clearly gives the governor the authority to act exactly as suggested by the Medical Examiners Board, a fact that Gibbons now acknowledges. That Gibbons had been unaware of the law further underscores his abysmal handling of the hepatitis crisis.

The doctors had justifiably refused to resign, creating a controversy that distracted from the real issue. We hope Gibbons will now focus on that real issue — health care — and abandon such sideshows as power politics.