Medical practitioners urged to say 'sorry' 

Source: ONE News

Health practitioners can find it difficult to apologise to patients following an adverse event, but a health lawyer says it can often be crucial step to take.

Speaking before a Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioner conference in Wellington, Marie Bismark says an apology could restore trust to the practitioner-patient relationship.

"Paradoxically, some patients and families have more trust in the health care system after an adverse event, than before, if the event is handled openly and honestly," Bismark says.

When the event was preventable, an apology sent an important signal that the error was regretted and the person in question wanted to avoid it happening again.

But for many health practitioners, saying "I'm sorry" remained a difficult and uncomfortable thing to do, Bismark says.

That was because of often misplaced fears of medico-legal consequences and professional sanctions.

"Saying sorry does not automatically imply fault and can be said without admission of error or responsibility. It's all about context."

Bismark says when a preventable error occurred, injured patients could be less likely to take legal action if health practitioners communicated openly and apologised appropriately, than if the patient perceived a "cover up".

Generally speaking, an apology also required practitioners to reflect carefully on what went wrong and why, something which could support better and safer care in future.