DO DOCTORS ERR?

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18016, 7 March 1924, Page 9

DO DOCTORS ERR?

AN AMERICAN COMPLAINT. ALLEGATION OF INEFFIENCY. 8? CABLE—PHESS ASSOCIATION COFTEIOHT.) UCdTBALIAK AXD N.Z. CABLS ASSOCIATION.; (.Received March 6th, 8.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 5. A telegram from Chicago says that the fake physicians' scandal took a curious turn when Dr. Codman. a noted Boston surgeon, addressing the Convention of Surgeons there, declared that there were 7000 hospitals in the United States, and 550,000 patients annually. But, although this was an ape of hospitals, most of them were inefficient. An investigation conducted in the treatment of -100 cases of sarcoma by ten doctors with degrees, and with apparently adequate legitimate professional training, showed that practically every case represented a mistake in diagnosis. Legs were amputated when they should not have been, and patients died without the operating surgeons knowing whether they should have lived or died.

Dr. Codman, while bemoaning charlatanry among individuals posing as legitimate physicians, condemned even more strongly inefficiency in the ranks of legitimate pathologists, surgeons, and physicians.