82 percent of doctors admit seeing colleagues making fatal errors
London | June 28, 2004 4:44:01 PM IST
Source: Web India
82 percent of doctors in Britain have admitted to having seen their colleagues making mistakes while treating patients.
According to the survey conducted on 2500 doctors by website, doctors.net,uk., only 15 percent of these errors were reported with 13 percent leading to patient death or disability.
"Doctors interviewed by BBC Radio Five Live suggested these could include misdiagnosis, wrong treatment and later referrals. Medics admitted that some of the mistakes led to the deaths or disability of patients but hardly any were reported," The Daily Mail quoted a BBC spokesperson as saying.
In their replies to BBC Radio, 97 percent of the doctors said that a confidential system of hazard reporting could help in reduction of such cases.
"What comes through very clearly from this survey is that doctors know that they make mistakes, they are human beings after all, but there is no culture of improvement," said Dr Neil Bacon, chief executive of the website.
"It has been proven in other industries that, without a blame culture, mistakes can be reported and lead to an improvement in safety," he added. (ANI)
