Doctors living in fear of fatal mistakes due to NHS pressures, says BMA

Full story in The Telegraph, 25 June 2018

NHS doctors are living in fear of making life-threatening mistakes due to financial pressures and staff shortages, according to a new survey.

The British Medical Association (BMA) says “perpetual” rota gaps have put the health service into a state of all-year crisis, with three quarters of doctors believing that the drive to meet financial targets is overriding patient safety.

The survey of nearly 8,000 doctors also found 95 per cent were fearful of making a medical error and more than half feared they would be blamed for problems arising from failures in the system.

It comes the week after Theresa May agreed to boost NHS funding by £384 million a week, to be paid for by tax increases as well as a “Brexit dividend”.