In the News – Doctors Usually Don’t Report Incompetence

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

A quarter of doctors who know that a colleague is underperforming or incompetent do not sound the alarm, a confidential survey reveals. They fear retribution, believe that no action would be taken, or assume that someone else is dealing with the problem.

Martin Roland of the University of Cambridge and colleagues confidentially surveyed 3000 US and UK doctors in 2009. The results suggested that almost 1 in 5 doctors had direct experience of an incompetent or poorly performing colleague in the previous three years.

Read the rest — Doctors fail to report incompetent colleagues

In the March 12, 2011 issue of New Scientist, the journal quoted a University of Cambridge survey of 3000 US and UK physicians regarding their feelings about the competence of their colleagues. Poor performing colleagues who create errors in patient care reflected an alarming 21% of practitioners in the US and 13% in the UK!

I suspect that these numbers are far worse in fields of medicine like hair restoration, because of the absence of peer review of the activities of these doctors. I could name names, but because of the legal system in the US there is no protection against slander lawsuits lodged against me… so instead I speak loudly about the problem and report to the medical boards those physicians who I know are involved in illegal and immoral acts against patients.