Do Russian doctors often make mistakes? And the American? Chinese, German, Brazilian? Unfortunately, there is no answer to this question - in many countries there is no official statistical data of medical errors (and sometimes no even a legislative definition!).
It would seem that the more advanced the medicine becomes, the less should be medical errors there. In fact, as experts say, everything is not so simple. Diagnostic and therapeutic equipment is becoming more and more difficult to operate, and, therefore, requires more strict control and highly skilled, experienced personnel, whose training takes years.
The development of diagnostic and treatment facilities leads to the identification of new diseases, a significant increase in the amount of medical knowledge, therefore, the work of a physician requires a constant increase in the level of qualification and is becoming more and more highly specialized. At the same time, if a patient has a difficult combination of diseases, sometimes it is very difficult for a “narrow” specialist to make a correct diagnosis and find the optimal treatment - you need advice from senior colleagues or a coordinated opinion of the council of physicians. However, sometimes doctors prefer to prescribe more and more new examinations and consultations of even more narrow specialists.
In Russian realities, the situation is complicated by the interrelated problems of the severe shortage of medical personnel, poor wages, too much amount of work for medical personnel, non-stop updating of standards and procedures for providing medical care, which creates a lot of formal (bureaucratic) obstacles, etc.
What is the price of medical errors? The popular opinion of enthusiastic media lovers is: hundreds of patients are dying by fault of the doctors. And if they survive, then, as a rule, they become disabled.
Fortunately, this myth is hopelessly distant from reality. But there is a very real problem which is considered not so much by patients, frightened by lots of negative information as by doctors themselves, - the growth of unnecessary («idle») costs for health care servicesboth in developed and developing countries due to the implementation of expensive new high-tech methods of diagnosis and treatment, as well as due to the progressive population aging. In this case, according to the statistics, the increase of costs is not accompanied by an adequate increase of life duration. The analysis has shown, that almost a third of the funds allocated for health care are wasted for redundant, ineffective, and sometimes even dangerous interventions.
How to get rid of this «ballast», to provide safe, high-quality and affordable medical care? Anton Chablin, chief editor of «We will be healthy» medical club (Stavropol), spoke on that topic with the doctor of medical sciences, physician and cardiologist – Olga BOEVA.

Keywords: medical errors, health care efficiency, patient-valued approach