doctor error. costs.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/health-news/when-doctors-make-bad-calls/article2349755/

( D - any health care system that addresses mistakes by doctors, and corrects them, reaps huge financial dividents. Besides the human cost. )

How could this misdiagnosis have happened – and, what's more, persisted even as counter-evidence piled up? It not as unusual as patients – and doctors – would hope: Statistics show that 10 to 15 per cent of patients are misdiagnosed; the number is likely higher, since many medical errors are never discovered...

But that means roughly 80 per cent of mistakes are physician error...

A Canadian study in 2004 estimated that 9,000 to 23,000 Canadian patients die yearly after a preventable “adverse event,” such as surgical errors and improperly prescribed medications.

An Ontario study published last year, which looked at 22 million patients visits from 2003 to 2007, found that the longer patients waited in a crowded emergency room – only to be discharged and sent home – the more likely they were to die or be admitted to hospital within seven days. That's disconcerting when we know that more Canadians, unable to find family doctors, are using the ER as an alternative. The problem may get only worse.

Canadian physicians are among the best trained in the world; their error rates are on par with other industrialized countries.

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( D - I remain bewildered by the cause of our doctor shortage. It was engineered by gov't. )

http://www.ispub.com/journal/the-internet-journal-of-healthcare-administration/volume-6-number-1/addressing-the-physician-shortage-with-international-medical-graduates-the-current-situation-and-solutions.html

It has been stated that the ratio of physicians to population should not decrease below 1.9/1000 (Tyrrell & Dauphinee, 1999) 5 . In 1999 the ratio was 1.85/1000, and it will decrease to 1.4/1000 by 2021 based on the current physician supply (Scully & Tyrrell, 1999) 1 . Not only does this adversely affect patients, but doctors themselves are feeling the pressure...
Making matters worse, an increase in physicians' average age, the growing number of female physicians, and the reduced workloads of younger physicians are all contributing to the need for more physicians (OHRC, 2007) 3 . Increasing age of physicians is marked by higher retirement rates, and fewer hours of work per week. More doctors are needed to replace the retiring doctors, and to make up the slack from older doctor's reduced work weeks...

The supply deficit is largely blamed on a 10% first year enrollment reduction from 1993-94. The reduction was based on a 1991 recommendation to stabilize physician supply. Since it takes at least 6 years to train a physician after entry into medical school, the full effects of the reduction were not felt until recent years (Stoddart, 1999) 8 . Furthermore, first year medical school opportunities in Canada (7.1/100,000) are nearly half of that available in Great Britain (12.9/100,000), and are far worse than that of the US and Australia (Scully & Tyrrell, 1999).

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D - a few years ago, I was doing food sanitation in a food factory in town. Trying to use a too-small wrench to twist a too-large nut at waist height, I ended up smashing myself in the mouth with the wrench. I cut through both sides of skin and membrane, and very nearly knocked out my front teeth. It was late evening. Of course, all I needed was a few stitches within a few hours for the skin to seal and heal well. It was after all, a vanity scar. But there were no all-night non-emergency clinics open. So I ended up hogging emerg like everybody else.
I'm not sure how the system can be quite as dysfunctional as it is.
A few years back, after living in town for 15 years now, I finally got a family doctor. Karmali. I was thrilled... at first.
Instead, my appointment time did not matter, I sat in what amounted to small crowded and busy clinic setting, and my treatment was inferior to a clinic. I was glad when she retired and I could go back to a clinic.
Just tragic.