Your say: Medical mishaps report

Stuff readers share their views on the series of medical mishaps that have been uncovered by the Health Ministry's first national report on serious and sentinel events.

What do you think? Email your feedback to editorial@stuff.co.nz

I'm sitting at home recovering from Surgery, my complete care from the GP - Ultra Sound - Specialist - MRI Scan - Surgery has been unbelievably brilliant. Having been sick in both Bolivia and when living in England I can inform you that we have one of the best Health  care systems in the world. Yes while there are hospital\medical mishaps, there are certainly many Journalism mishaps as well.
-Alex Johnston

Mishaps are always going to happen. People need to stop and realise that our health system will never be perfect. Everyday we see good stories about successful medical operations and we just have to take the good with the bad. As someone else has said if we want a perfect health system look on another planet.
-C Thompson

After being one of the people who received the wrong operation in hospital last year I'm not at all surprised by the report. No one is held accountable for these things in hospitals (well in my case anyway) and while there is no accountabilty this will keep happening in NZ.
-Linda Campbell

It makes for scary reading and when I think of my experiences within the New Zealand hospital system through the experiences of others, it is not hard to see why. There appears to be a terrible lack of communication between the doctor and the patient. Often the patient has no idea what is happening to him or her or an understanding of why it occurs. Communication with relatives is also quite shakey. It is so hard to get any information out of some health professionals in hospitals.  Also the way they inform people of things happening through the mail is horrifically time and money wasting and on occasions just plain daft. They send umpteen letters for something which could be achieved with a simple phonecall or even an email.
That said, I've almost always seen excellent service in situations where it has mattered the most. Most of these experiences have been in the Waikato system. I note however the difference in atmospheres across New Zealand. North Shore Hospital has got to be the most disagreeable hospital in terms of the way patients are dealt with with Waitakere and Waikato falling into what I'd call a better level of healthcare. There also appears (at least in the case of Waikato) to be a well run and efficient feedback system. In summary I think we've got some potentially serious problems but we are still very fortunate to have an overall well run and FREE hospital system compared to places like the USA where you can literally die if you don't have the right insurance policy.
-Michael

I am surprised by two things. That that number of mishaps is this low given the shambles our hospital system is in and by the proud statement that adding all the bungles into one report is a world first.  Twenty-one separate bureaucratic entities have brought bungling and waste to a new level.  There are 21 CEO reputations to protect, 21 separate agendas  with 21 separate marketing departments to spin the stats any way they can.
-Lawrence Russell

No, I'm not surprised at all!!! Experience in our own family with medical negligence is first hand knowledge of what goes on in a public hospital in this country!
-D Gregg

The Government continues to waffle on that they have increased the health budget by billions of dollars over the past 9 years so everything must be great!
What they have done is spend billions of dollars on creating more bureaucracy within the health system and when something goes wrong they hide behind that same bureaucracy. They may have spent billions but have not put in processes to make them, the Government, responsible for outcomes.
It is about time they got rid of the bureaucracy and spent that money on front-line equipment, staff and processes. Our operating theatres should be in operation 24/7 if that is what is needed and staffing levels should be high enough to make sure no one doctor, nurse, ambulance staff member or hospital caregiver works longer than an 8 hour shift. That way the mistakes may decrease.
-Jude Morgan

Am I surprised? No, not at all! With the way the poor overworked/underpaid doctors and nurses are being treated I'm surprised there isn't more! We need to get rid of the useless consultants/management staff who are only there to line their pockets and get more coal face workers in and give them a realistic wage!
-Lorraine

Put your information in context rather than scaremongering the public.  The actual figure as stated later in the article is 2 per 10,000 patients which is equal or better to international comparisons.  There is inherent risk in many parts of healthcare. If the public want to look for a perfect system on some other planet, then good luck to them. I am not saying our hospitals are safe enough - there is definitely room for improvement.  But the only way to improve is by encouraging an atmosphere of open reporting amongst all staff.  That is not going to occur when they see articles like yours, out of context, on the top of the news.
-Hiroshi & Miriam Nakatsuji

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