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Dear NathanJ,

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You wrote :

« Firstly, you did not answer my point re future predictions. This includes legal action and the pressures of Coroner's investigations. Such Coroner inquests are usually critical towards those in the medical sector, to send a message that faults within the medical sector are not acceptable »

In my opinion, Nathan, competent medical practitioners and service providers have nothing to fear from coroners’ investigations and criticisms. It is only the incompetent, careless and irresponsible ones who have something to fear.

So far as hospitals are concerned, it is the poor management that has something to fear. The good, competent managers who have set-up proper procedures and effective controls to ensure that those procedures are scrupulously respected, have nothing to fear either.

If, as seems to be the case, you have in mind particular medical staff who carry out their professions competently and conscientiously, please be assured that they have nothing to fear and reassure them accordingly.

Nevertheless, it is estimated that 18,000 people in Australia, die every year as a result of medical error, while 50,000 people suffer a permanent injury.

It is also estimated that 200,000 infections are caught by patients in Australian hospitals each year. These have serious consequences, including repeat surgery or even fatalities – as well as costing Australia $1bn a year.

The problem is world-wide. It is even worse in the US:

Approximately 40,000 harmful and/or lethal hospital errors occur each and every day in the US. According to the most recent report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hospital-acquired infections affect one in 25 patients. In 2011, an estimated 722,000 patients contracted an infection during a stay in an acute care hospital in the US, and about 75,000 of them died as a result of it.

It is understandable that the victims’ families find this situation totally unacceptable and seek to bring the medical profession to account for it and to implement appropriate measures to avoid it reoccurring.

Here are the links to my sources :

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3778256.htm

http://www.choice.com.au/health-and-body/hospitals-and-medical-procedures/medical-treatments/articles/surviving-hospital-infections

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/09/hospital-acquired-infections.aspx

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