Recent weeks have seen a spate of press stories about medical errors, some resulting in deaths, associated with private health contractors and out-of-hours staff. Without wishing to comment on the specific cases, I want to suggest that it is not straightforward to say whether such events have any particular implications for private contracting or out-of-hours management. For medical errors are widespread, in any event, and have been for many years.
Indeed, the 2000 US study, To err is human, found that medical errors accounted for some 44,000-98,000 deaths per year in the US. UK studies have found analogous results. Being killed by your doctor is one of the major causes of premature death - locum, private contractor, or regular NHS staff.