Media release from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists

"John Judge, Chair of the ACC, has missed the plot with his statement that public hospitals and doctors should be financially penalised when patients have treatment injuries," said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

"Mr Judge ignores the fact that when things go wrong overwhelmingly they are due to systems errors rather than personal mistakes.  Fiscally penalising financially strapped public hospitals will only make it more difficult to improve systems and would risk compromising standards of patient care."

"He displays gross ignorance with his false assertion that there are no incentives for public hospitals and doctors to prevent treatment injuries.  This is way off beam.  Doctors are governed by their own professional and ethical codes as well as the disciplinary and registration authorities set up under legislation.  Both public hospitals and doctors can have their performance assessed by the Health & Disability Commissioner when a patient or family member makes a complaint.  They are also publicly subjected to periodic scrutiny by the media."

"Mr Judge is entitled to fly kites but he undermines his own credibility and that of the ACC when his kite is riddled with holes of ignorance and inaccuracy," concluded Mr Powell.