An Email for My MP
Dear Mr Lim,
The First Duty of Government
According to former Prime Minister Abbott: “Because protecting our people is the first duty of government, it’s right that I should update the House on developing challenges to our national security.+[i] This article focuses upon seemingly trustworthy people in power who endanger many lives by failing to protect citizens.
Ivan Illich warned that “the medical establishment has become a major threat to health. The disabling impact of professional control over medicine has reached the proportions of an epidemic. Iatrogenesis, the name for this new epidemic, comes from iatros, the Greek word for ‘physician’, and genesis, meaning ‘origin’.” Illich’s book, ‘Medical Nemesis’ was published in 1976 and in the decades since then, public-domain medical literature has confirmed that each nation generates an iatrogenic epidemic; collectively creating an iatrogenic pandemic.
Apparently, over the past decades, millions of patients have been killed or permanently harmed by medical products and services. Seemingly, throughout the developed world no national data collection comprehensively evidence all of that nation’s iatrogenic deaths. That crucial absence of data makes it impossible for medical practitioners to know of all of the medical products and services that have already contributed toward the global iatrogenic pandemic’s accumulating toll.
Without that information 1) pathology courses may not inform medical students about many/most of the medical products and services that have over past decades, killed or permanently harmed medical patients, 2) today the world’s medical practitioners cannot know about the degree of risk posed by many/most of the medical products and services that they are providing to their collective billions of current patients.
The July 17th, 1999 edition of the British Medical Journal included: “Studies in Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom and elsewhere suggest levels of error and hazard in patient care that are no lower than in America.” Medicine’s scientific evidence-based practises are applied in all developed countries creating similar levels of error and hazard in patient care. “The causes of iatrogenic injury appear to be systemic. The remarkable constancy of pattern across the Australian and US health care systems for serious injuries bears witness to the fact that despite all of the differences in structure, training, and practice, similar patterns of iatrogenic injury are observed.”[ii]
“The extent to which a problem may be attributed to iatrogenic injury is often debatable. In the case of the 14,000 deaths, for example, it is known that the patient died and that there was an iatrogenic event. The extent to which the death was caused by the iatrogenic event compared with the contribution of their causes such as the critical nature of the patient’s condition has not been determined and is the subject of further study.”[iii]
The global magnitude of iatrogenesis: Dr Liam Donaldson, the WHO’s envoy for patient safety made the amazing claim about doing business with medicine: “Millions of people die each year from medical errors and infections linked to health care.” [iv] It is important to understand this pandemic magnitude included only two of the twelve categories of iatrogenesis.
The 12 categories of iatrogenesis:
- Adverse reactions to incorrectly prescribed drugs.
- Adverse reactions to correctly prescribed drugs.
- Errors (wrong site, wrong procedure, wrong patient) during surgery.
- Medical error
- Hospital-acquired infections
- Bedsores
- Malnutrition among hospitalized patients
- Unnecessary medical procedures
- Failure to properly diagnose
- Misdiagnosis
- Failure to correctly treat
- Death arising from injury from therapeutic devices.
Guesstimating America’s iatrogenic toll: US researchers, including three MDs and a PhD, used a framework of 12 categories of iatrogenesis to sort all of the available jumbled medical data information in an orderly way to portray the full picture of the entire spectrum of their iatrogenic epidemic. “The most stunning statistic, however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year. It is now evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US.” [v]
Concealing the iatrogenic pandemic: “There is not presently a reliable and up-to-date estimate for the number of deaths related to iatrogenic injury in the US, or in any other nation (to my knowledge).”[vi] In Canada: “No one has the slightest idea how many iatrogenic errors might be uncovered if the entire field of medicine were to be studied particularly if the same forensic intensity were applied that is accorded highway accidents and crime scenes.” [vii]
Iatrogenesis; the silent epidemic: Neither the government nor its bureaucracy can publish a truthful iatrogenic toll. Incredibly, while over decades, hundreds of thousands of medical patients have fallen victim to the iatrogenic epidemic, no government department has collected, collated, and published an accurate report about the true magnitude of Australia’s continuing iatrogenic deaths and permanent harm.
Guesstimating Australia’s iatrogenic toll: Decades ago, Australian investigative journalist John Archer used some of the public domain medical literature as a basis for his guesstimate of Australia’s annual iatrogenic toll, 50,000 pa.[viii]
A contentious study released by the then federal health minister, Carmen Lawrence, estimated that 18,000 patients died in Australia each year from one of the categories of iatrogenic harm, medical mistakes and another 50,000 suffered permanent injury.[ix] A few years ago Australia’s War Memorial figures showed that in the years since 1860-61the total war-caused death toll among Australia’s serving defence force personnel, in all of the wars in which Australia has been a combatant, totaled 102,820. Australia’s decade’s long covert, cumulative iatrogenic toll far exceeds 102,820.
Nobody “raises an eyebrow”: Quoting the book ‘Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime’, authored by Professor Peter Gøtzsche, founded the Nordic Cochrane Centre: “The mob doesn’t kill many people compared to what the drug industry knowingly does.” “Tens of thousands of patients had lost their lives because of the misdeeds committed by Merk and Phizer”. “He estimates that 100,000 people in the United States alone die each year from the side effects of correctly used drugs. … It’s remarkable that nobody raises an eyebrow when we kill so many of our own citizens with drugs,”[x]
In 2000, a submission from CAA (WA) to the then Minister for Health, focused attention on why the government fails to recognise and curb the iatrogenic toll. Excerpts of the submission and further information relating to iatrogenesis being a/or the leading cause of death and permanent harm, have been widely circulated to federal MPs, political parties, and key people in Australia’s media. Nobody ‘raised an eyebrow’.
In July 2005, Australia’s Office of the Safety and Quality Council confirmed that: “There is currently no one body that correlates all information on rates of death due to treatment and in fact, there is no single source of statistics that provides an appropriate measure for safety and quality in Australia.”
Members of the healthcare Establishment are an informed party to a failure to reveal and so to conceal the magnitude of Australia’s iatrogenic epidemic. That concealment permits the current horrendous deception that the source of the epidemic, public health is acceptably safe.
A response to a request for the government’s estimate of iatrogenic deaths was stated as: “According to Causes of Death, Australia, 2007`complications of medical and surgical care’ was the underlying cause of 259 deaths in 2007.” The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provides an annual report about why people die; it is referred to as Causes of Death.
Causes of Death, served as the basis of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, (SMH) titled Annual loss recorded: a year in the life of death. [xi] The article included this graphic which is based on Cause of Death. Australia’s iatrogenic epidemic is not mentioned.
How the iatrogenic pandemic disappears: The World Health Organisation’s classification of diseases using two categories instead of twelve categories 2) Seemingly, the WHO guidelines regarding death certificates permit those death certificates which should bear an iatrogenic cause of death, to instead bear a substituted non-iatrogenic cause of death.
Substitution disallows an accurate publication of deaths occurring in the 12 categories of iatrogenesis. Substitution permits the ABS, government and the media to not officially recognise the annual thousands of deaths arising from all categories of the iatrogenic spectrum. Concealment coupled with reassurances that the source of the epidemic, public health is acceptably safe imperils impending victims of the iatrogenic epidemic.
These arrangements protect the careers, incomes, and massive vested interests of the industry which provides the products and services that generate the iatrogenic epidemic.
This lack of evidence means that public patients are unaware of the medical products and services that permanently harmed or killed thousands of their predecessors and may now imperil them. Medicare cannot know what medical products and services it funds contribute toward the iatrogenic epidemic.
A vast number of trusted people ignore their duty of care by using a mantle of ethical, altruistic integrity to foster an illusion that betrays both patient and public interest. It is in the public interest for both the body overseeing registration Boards, (AHPRA) and the Medical Registration Board to be leading authorities on Australia’s continuing iatrogenic death toll.
Evidence-based medicine never evidences the total magnitude of the epidemic/pandemic it creates.
AHPRA recently replied to an inquiry as follows:
“Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding information collected and published in Australia about medical adverse events, injuries and deaths.
AHPRA’s role is to support the 14 National Boardsthat are responsible for regulating the health professions in the public interest. The primary role of the National Boards is to set registration requirements and to establish standards and policies that all registered health practitioners must meet.
We are not able to advise on matters relating to employment and/or employment conditions nor are we able to provide you with statistics or information concerning the above mentioned.”
The law governing the conduct of AHPRA may not require members of AHPRA to be conversant with ‘information collected and published in Australia about medical adverse events, injuries, and deaths’. With respect and in light of the extreme seriousness of the foregoing reality the services provided by Australia’s medical profession must be legally regulated in a manner that minimises Australia’s iatrogenic toll.
Please respond to the following questions
Do you support legalising the requirement that the medical registration Board holds its registrants responsible for reporting all instances of deaths due to medical treatment as distinct from the patient’s disorder? Yes [ ] No [ ] If “No” why “No”?
Do you support legalising the requirement that in all instances of deaths due to medical treatment as distinct from the patient’s disorder, death certificates must reflect the truth? Yes [ ] No [ ] If “No” why “No”?
Do you support legalising the requirement that the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses a data collection system for iatrogenic deaths using an all-inclusive 12 categories rather than the current exclusive 2 category system data collection system? Yes [ ] No [ ] If “No” why “No”?
Do you support legalising the requirement that the Department of Health creates a national database capable of evidencing what medical products and services contribute toward Australia’s iatrogenic epidemic? Yes [ ] No [ ] If “No” why “No”?
Do you support legalising the requirement that the Department of Health issue adequate public forewarning about the epidemic risk involved in public health? Yes [ ] No [ ] If “No” why “No”?
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[ii]Iatrogenic Injury in Australia. A report prepared by the Australian Patient Safety Foundation, WB Runciman, October 2001, p 106
[iii]WB Runciman, Iatrogenic Injury in Australia. A report prepared by the Australian Patient Safety Foundation, October 2001, pg 23.
[iv] According to the article: Health Care Is ‘High-Risk Business’ from Reuters Health Information by Stephanie Nebehay, I6
[v] http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_02.htmRep
[vi] Email from: Eldridge, Noel (AHRQ/CQuIPS) [mailto:Noel.Eldridge@AHRQ.hhs.gov
[vii]Squandering Billions; Health Care in Canada. Bannerman, Gary et al Publisher Hancock House page 56
[viii] https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2208142
[ix]http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/25/1014471628826.html
[x]Peter Gotzsche, founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, visits Australia to talk about dangers of prescription drugs, Sydney Morning Herald Feb 7, 2015, Amy Corderoy, Health editor