According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) it is found that Obstetrics department generates the biggest number of negligence claims.
A new report shows that one in five cases of negligence from this department. Data was collected from 2002 when the medical field was going through a period of crisis. In this period there was a steep rise in the price of doctors' negligence insurance for which the doctors were threatening to quit their jobs.The AIHW report examines 6,500 cases from 2002 to June 2005.It was found that obstetrics contributes for 18 % of the medical negligence followed by accident and emergency (15 %) and general surgery (11%). Negligence or error resulted in about one third of the deaths. Negligence includes problems such as patients undergoing the wrong procedure or a wrong body part operated on or treated which eventually results in post-operative complications. AIHW spokeswoman Samantha Bricknell said that negligence resulted in $100,000- $500,000 expenditure to the government. These cases took a minimum time period of about two years to settle down.
