The missing word on hospital errorsThe Age 1 November 2005 The front page headline from yesterday — "Hospitals hit by dramatic rise in errors" — omitted one important word: there is no evidence presented to demonstrate that public hospital medical errors rose by 40 per cent, but reported errors have indeed. This is a reflection of the success of a small but useful program to identify errors. Previously these were rarely reported. No such program exists across private hospitals. Even this program fails to identify the vast majority of errors, and until a concerted effort is made by both state and federal governments to address the issue, preventable deaths in both public and private hospitals will continue to account for 4500 deaths per year as identified in 1996.
Dr Tim Woodruff President Doctors Reform Society
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