Hippocratic Oath = Hypocritical Oath

I was recently reading some articles and I stumbled across one that a woman had written about her recent illness. She mentioned that she was having stomach pains that were not subsiding. She called her local medical clinic to set up an appointment. Now according to the woman, she had never been to this clinic, neither did she have a regular family physician. The appointment time and date were set, her name was taken, and she was asked whom her doctor was. She explained to the receptionist that she did not have a family physician. Upon hearing this, the receptionist told her that the Doctors in the clinic were not taking new patients. According to the woman, the receptionist couldn't hang the phone up fast enough. Her questions then turned to the Hippocratic Oath and accusations were made of how hypocritcal it was for a doctor to take an oath and swear to helping all who needed it and then doing a 180 as far as carrying out the oath.

I could not believe that a Doctor could turn a patient down. I too thought this was surely against some law. I thought perhaps this woman should contact the American Medical Association or some other form of authority. How could a Doctor who had taken an oath to help all people who were in need of medical attention refuse that treatment?

Upon looking up information about the Hippocratic Oath, I discovered that it is an oath that can be changed, revised, deleted, and added to as the governing body sees fit. By this I mean that every medical college that a graduating physician leaves, can change the oath, have no oath at all, or just make up their own oath, for those students who are graduating. As a matter of fact, there is no oath that the American Medical Association promotes. The American Medical Association does however promote a Code Of Ethics.