The minister of health was recently quoted as saying that the medical mistakes reported in our hospitals are mainly the result of doctors’ low salaries. What the minister meant to say was that his ministry employs doctors with sub-standard professional qualifications because of the low salaries offered by the ministry.
While fully appreciating the ministry’s efforts to improve doctors’ employment conditions in public hospitals, I must express reservations about the minister’s statement. Apart from being vague and tending to generalize, the statement sought to exonerate the health sector by putting blame on those who determine the wage scale.
Modern medicine is a comprehensive integrated process that does not involve only one component, in this case the physician. It is rather a complete system that combines administrative, technical and medical capacities as well as other factors to produce a system whose functioning depends on the joint efforts of all the elements.
We cannot go on saying that the doctor is the main reason for medical mistakes if we have weak administrative and technical systems that should play complementary roles. In the absence of qualified assisting staff and modern equipment, the surgeon will not be able to perform as required and this inability may lead to an unsuccessful operation.
From my own experience while working in the health sector, I can say that the main problem is not in the variation in salaries but rather in the presence of a system that occupies itself with small details which should play complementary roles to ensure the total system functions smoothly and coherently. Doctors should act based on clear, precise and reliable diagnostic information provided by exhaustive tests. Proper diagnoses and the availability of qualified teams make it easier for doctors to do the job. Unfortunately, this is not always the case where, in some sectors, including those run by the ministry, a chaotic situation prevails at both the administrative and technical levels.
It is unfortunate that under such circumstances with the facility under-staffed and under-equipped, doctors find themselves forced to act based on whatever meager results are available to them. They are working under conditions that cannot be described as ideal. The biggest mistake when considering medical errors is focusing on the doctor alone while excluding other aspects of the situation, particularly the technical and administrative staff.
