The majority of Poles (58%) in their immediate environment have not encountered a case of treatment error, neglect or lack of due diligence, which resulted in a patient’s health impairment, according to the latest CBOS survey.
However, a significant group of respondents, two-fifths (41 percent), declared that they had encountered medical errors in their environment, and only one percent were unable to express an opinion on this issue.
As emphasized by CBOS, medical errors in their environment were more often noticed by better educated respondents living in larger towns. About half of the respondents with higher education (51%) and residents of the largest cities of over half a million (48%) declare that they or their relatives or friends have fallen victim to a medical error. The youngest respondents aged 18-24 (53%) and dissatisfied with the material conditions of their households (52%) also talk about such situations above average.
Every fourth respondent (26%) declared that he or she had a doctor made a wrong diagnosis or recommended a treatment that turned out to be wrong. Every fourteenth respondent (7%) stated that during their stay in hospital, they had been poorly treated or operated on incorrectly, and every twentieth respondent (5%) stated that during hospital treatment they had received the wrong medicine or its dose, or had not received the medicine, which he should have got.
Every seventh respondent (15%), i.e. approximately every fourth parent (23%) declared that there had been mistakes and errors in the diagnosis of the health condition and treatment of their children.
A large group of respondents believe that they have fallen victim to medical errors before.
More than half of the respondents (55%) consider it important to consult another doctor, and more or less every third (36%) is of the opposite opinion. It should be noted that the respondents perceive the need for additional opinion a little more often than a dozen or so years ago (an increase from 49% to 55%), and less often they do not have a precise opinion on this subject (a decrease from 15% to 7%). .
Most of the respondents (61%) sometimes – with varying frequency – ask for additional medical opinions. Relatively few do it always (9%), while larger groups of respondents verify medical decisions sometimes (22%) or rarely (20%). Nearly two fifths of respondents (37%) never verify the diagnoses and the recommended treatment with other doctors. More often they are less educated respondents, living in smaller towns, having a lower assessment of the material conditions of their households, the elderly, who do not regularly use the Internet, as well as those who have not experienced medical errors or come into contact with them in their immediate environment.
More than two-thirds of respondents (69%) also look for information about the disease and treatment in other sources: the Internet, books, magazines. Relatively few do it always (13%), a little more often (17%), and the most often (26%). Three in ten (30%) of respondents never look for additional information about the disease and treatment.
As CBOS emphasizes, although a considerable percentage of respondents declare that they have experienced medical errors, and most respondents sometimes seek additional opinion from another doctor and look for information about the disease and treatment in other sources, the vast majority of respondents (78%) trust their doctors .
The CBOS poll was conducted on October 9-15 this year on a representative sample of 919 people, a random sample of adult Polish residents. (PAP)
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