How serious is it when the doctor makes the wrong diagnosis or is taking too long to find out what the patient fails?

seriously. In many cases, fatal.

It is the stories B. T. the past few weeks have brought on Sandra Dark Valente and Peter Holst examples of.

Now the hills a large new Danish report their stories up.

Each year, is recognised around 63 deaths of Patienterstatningen in cases where the patient's diagnosis overlooked, delayed or made incorrectly.

according to a new report from the Patienterstatningen and the Danish society for Patient safety, who have mapped the extent of diagnosefejl.

the Report is based on all of the cases in which there is compensation paid for the last ten years, and the real number of patients who die each year as a result of diagnosefejl can therefore be higher since it is far from all, which seeks compensation.

the Danish society for Patient safety estimates that mørketallet for the cases that do not end up as damages can be between two and up to ten times more.

Inge Kristensen, who is the director of the Danish society for Patient safety, said in connection with the release of the report; ‘Pathways to better diagnostics’.

"In the work of patient safety, we have most had their attention on the care and treatment of patients and less on diagnoseprocessen.

But a recent survey in the US shows that diagnosefejl is widespread and quite serious for the patient."

B. T. have put the spotlight on the many danes, who find that the doctor did not listen to them with serious consequences to follow.

And, precisely, the doctor's lack of responsiveness to the patient in the chair opposite him or her, can be one of the reasons that the diagnosis does not come or comes too late.

Specialist and ph.d. Eva Benfeldt is one of three doctors who helped to write the report.

She said that it is most often in the initial phase, where you examine the patient and listen to his or her story, that it goes wrong.

"from the information we have had access to, we can not determine exactly why the errors are happening. However, factors such as time constraints, inadequate communication between patient and doctor, lack of access to collegial cooperation or involvement of the patient's relatives are all good bids," says Eva Benfeldt in connection with the release.

And just the time to involve and listen to patients and relatives is one of the most important tasks of the health service is facing, if we want to prevent, to some patients being dropped on the floor and do not get the right treatment, says director of the Danish Patients, Morten Freil.

"As it is right now the framework is not to it, because this is not the time for it. It can be the individual doctor does not create, then it is a management responsibility to systematically give priority to involve patients and relatives in treatment."

the doctors ' chairman Andreas Rudkjøbing calls for better time to listen to patients.

"It is important that we insist on, there must be time and space to listen and respond to what patients tell," he says to the B. T.