The Sixth International Symposium on public health announced that every year in Italy more than 6 pct of patients in hospital die due to a medical error.

The symposium commented that medical errors were becoming an increasing concern in the daily life of health care systems.

As many as 340 thousand patients are discharged with injuries or illnesses purely down to errors in treatment or in the services provided in the hospital.

Considering that in 2000 557,583 deaths in hospitals were recorded, the 35 thousand deaths as a result of a medical error comprise 6.2 pct.

Dr. Grisanti's Comments:

Considering the USA is guilty of having over 100,000 patient die in hospitals every year from medical mistakes, I am horrified at this new statistic on the number of deaths attributed to Italian hospitals.