Despite screaming opposition from the Medical Society of the District of Columbia (MSDC), the D.C. Council recently overrode former Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly’s veto of a bill to allow advanced registered nurses to treat patients without the supervision of a doctor. In a letter to the troops, MSDC President Wayne Blackmon declares that “this is a war not yet won” and that the bill “threatens our patients and our profession.” In cities where similar legislation has passed, nurses perform the tasks of general practitioners, such as giving routine physical exams. Nursing groups argue that since RNs already perform such tasks for doctors, why shouldn’t they be able to set up shop, charge patients less, and defer to doctors when the need arises? Blackmon believes that’s the logic of “overzealous regulators and mindless cost cutters,” and warns of harmful effects to patients’ health. (He only hints of the harmful effects to doctors’ wallets.) MSDC is now urging the House Subcommittee on the District to veto the bill.