The public is mostly unaware of these interlocking interests. For example, a 2003 study found that nearly half of medical school faculty, who serve on Institutional Review Boards (1KB) to advise on clinical trial research, also serve as consultants to the pharmaceutical industry.

A report also conducted by the New England Journal Of Medicine also noted that a survey of clinical trials revealed that when a drug company funds a. study, there is a 90 per cent chance that the drug will be perceived as effective whereas a non-drug company-funded study will show favourable results 50 per cent of the time.

It appears that money can't buy you love but it can buy you any "scientific'' result you want. I wonder, what is the effect on someone who daily gets the wrong medication, the wrong dose, the wrong procedure; how do we measure the accumulated burden of injury; and when the patient finally succumbs after the tenth error that week, what is entered on the death certificate?

Hospital errors are spread out over the country in thousands of different locations. They arc also perceived as isolated and unusual events. However, the most important reason that medical error is unrecognized and growing is that doctors and nurses are unequipped to deal with human error, due to the culture of medical training and practice. Doctors are taught that mistakes are unacceptable.

Medical mistakes are therefore viewed as a failure of character and any error equals negligence. We can see how a great deal of sweeping under the rug takes place since nobody is taught what to do when medical error does occur. It must be considered an intolerable situation.

The cause, according to the Institute of Medicine, is not as much recklessness on the part of doctors, nurses and other health providers as it is basic flaws in the way hospitals, clinics and pharmacies operate. That kind of problem is fixable.