The NSW Government is pretending it is surprised by the revelations about deaths in its hospitals. Every year at least 4,500 patients die of preventable causes in Australian hospitals. That’s the same as ten jumbo jets crashing every year with all lives lost. This has been known at least since 1999 when the Federal Government set up a committee to address the issue. Most hospital doctors remain unaware of the committee or any actions to fix the problem.
One of the reasons these errors are not exposed is that individuals in the system are reluctant to disclose the problems for fear of being involved in the blame game.
Both State and Federal Governments have sat on their hands since that committee started working and now a NSW commission trying to address the issue is blamed for not playing the blame game.
Since the Federal Government set up its own committee in 1999 at least another 18,000 patients have died. Implementing the changes suggested by the Federal committee needs both Federal and State Government resources and cooperation, and avoidance of the blaming mentality. In the absence of any of these we can expect another ten jumbo jets full of patients to crash with all lives lost next year.
Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society
Published in The Sydney Morning Herald
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