Complaints about medical negligence on the increase

Staff Reporter MORE than 300 people are attending a series of meetings on Professional Health Worker Responsibility, at the Son Llàtzer Foundation Hospital in Palma. The aim is to address the issue of a growing body of complaints about the negligence of health workers at all levels. Since 1995, a total of 825 legal proceedings have been taken out, of which only three percent have resulted in a court sentence. Magistrate, David Cubero, explained that Spain is suffering the same “rash” of official complaints as that which started some years ago in the United States. Cubero insisted that this growth is attributable to the disappearance of the relation of trust between doctor and patient. “Today, treatment is often more associated with technology and there is an inherent distrust on the part of the patient. Those needing medical attention notice that staff assigned to their care are constantly changing due to shift systems”. Over the past few years, areas of health care that have been subject to the greatest amount of official complaint, have been related to plastic surgery and gynaecology.