Alarming Statistics On Physicians' Misbehavior

This is interesting, and I think it is worth sharing with everyone since it concerns us all.

A very recent study published in the British Medical Journal of Quality and Safety revealed very disturbing information on doctor's misbehavior.


28% of UK physicians and 35% of their US counterparts did not report an incompetent or impaired colleague to concerned authorities or professional organizations to which he/she belongs. Incompetent doctors were simply ignored and allowed to continue seeing and treating [or harming] unwary patients.

This next one is outright reprehensible. 20% of physicians combined, strongly felt that their own financial interests should come first before the patient's welfare. Wow!...has the Hippocratic Oath been replaced already by the Corporate Creed....and greed?

A big majority of the doctors in the study, a whopping 83.3% in the US and 73.2% in the UK, admitted having received gifts from pharmaceutical companies, financial and otherwise, the year previous to the study. And 40% of them didn't think it was necessary to disclose this financial links with Big Pharma. It is not far-fetched that said doctors will prescribe and endorse their sponsor's products or procedures, sometimes even if unnecessary, just to return the favor. This is how mainstream medicine generally operates.

This one is also a shocker! 26% of UK doctors, and 12% of their US counterparts, believed that there is no need to explain all the risks and benefits of a procedure a patient has to undergo.

I wonder how these statistics will change your attitude toward your physicians, and medical treatment in general. How does your doctor view you? A patient who needs the best medical attention, or a source of added revenue? Depending on your MD's ethics and view of your case, I think you'll agree it will make a difference in the quality and cost of treatment that you will get.