Surgeons are supposed to talk about their mistakes at regular ‘Morbidity and Mortality’ meetings, where avoidable mistakes are discussed and lessons learned, but the ones I have attended, both in America and in my own department are usually rather tame affairs, with the doctors present reluctant to criticize each other in public. Although there is much talk of the need for doctors to work in a ‘blame-free’ culture it is very difficult in practice to achieve this. Only if the doctors hate each other, or are locked in furious competition (usually over private practice, which means money), will
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