Dr. Tom Ryan:

Then, as part of an open disclosure process, the doctors and nurses would have to admit that things had gone wrong. My specialty is intensive care. When one attends international meetings, one hears a lot about adverse events. There is always a session on medical and administrative error. Some 80% of errors are systemic. Individual errors that cause harm to a patient are extraordinarily rare. System errors which cause harm to patients include deficient systems, overburdened systems, under-resourced systems and systems in which all of the doctors are tired, there are not enough nurses or beds or there is inadequate access to diagnostic imaging. Doctors recognise this from their own experience, their knowledge of the literature and information they receive in attending international meetings. Having said that, everybody makes mistakes during his or her professional career. It is recognised that at some stage in their medical careers most people will be sued, either because of an error or an alleged error. Mistakes do happen and when they do, we need to be able to own up to them openly and honestly and allow the family to be compensated for any wrong or injury suffered as a result of mistakes we have made. There is no harm in this; it is good.