RADIOTHERAPY: The World Health Organization steps in

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[wddty.co.uk]

RADIOTHERAPY:  The World Health Organization steps in after countless

errors

 

Radiotherapy is given to around 40 per cent of the 10 million people

worldwide who are newly diagnosed with cancer every year. 

But it?s such a dangerous therapy ? and one that seems to create more

than its fair share of errors ? that the World Health Organization (WHO)

has stepped in.

Its World Alliance for Patient Safety wants to set up a series of safer

treatment protocols that learn from the mistakes of the past.  The

most common is a radiation overdose, such as the one discovered by

radiologists at the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary.  Around one

thousand cancer patients had received overdoses for 10 years before

technicians realised how to work the computers properly.

In the non-litigious UK, there have been around 150 negligence claims

for radiation damage in the past 30 years.

(Source:  British Medical Journal, 2007; 334: 272).