"Complaints 'sapping GP morale'" 

 Complaints against doctors backed by the threat of litigation are sapping morale
 and undermining the practice of good medicine, shows a survey. 

 There were 31,221 complaints against the 30,000 GPs in England in 1999-2000.

 By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
 9 February 2001
 The Independent - English broadsheet

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 "Needless hysterectomies are leaving patients suicidal, says backbencher" 

 By Sarah Schaefer 
 8 February 2001

 Surgeons are doing unnecessary hysterectomies, leaving some women feeling suicidal
 and with a loss of libido, Labour backbenchers warned yesterday. 

 One woman in five has a hysterectomy by the age of 65, she said, and more were
 done per head of population in Britain than in France or America. 

 Lawyers were now taking some of these cases before the General Medical Council.
 Complaints ranged from lack of information given before the operation, to a loss
 of libido or complications arising from further surgery necessary because of the
 hysterectomy. 

 Experts had found that the effects of hysterectomy could be devastating, she said.
 "Some women are actually driven either to suicide or have suicidal depression as
 the result of the after-effects of this surgery." 

 Hysterectomies often involved the removal of healthy organs, yet women were not
 told that beforehand, she said. 

 The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has issued guidance on the
 subject, warning surgeons of the need to reduce the number of unnecessary
 hysterectomies and advising them that a woman's ovaries should not be removed
 without her express consent.

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 `Perceptions' note:

 1) Highly paid members of an elite profession want less complaints from the
 public, saying these are "undermining good medicine"

 2) Overwhelming and tragic evidence that British members of that same elite
 profession are not practising "good medicine".
  
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 www.perceptions.couk.com/medical.html

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