Patient Safety in General Practice

Abstract

‘First do no harm’ is a basic principle of the medical profession, believed to be handed down to us by Hippocrates. Yet, every doctor has personal experience of patients who have come to harm while receiving care. We are all familiar with stories of hospital-acquired infection, such as MRSA or Clostridium difficile and with horror stories like those about patients who have had the wrong kidney removed. But do we, as doctors, really have any idea of the extent to which things go wrong in health care and the numbers of patients who come to harm?