Culture of secrecy must be tackled

doi:10.1136/bmj.39128.703692.3A

BMJ 2007;334:381 (24 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39128.703692.3A

Letters

Radiotherapy harm

Culture of secrecy must be tackled

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Royal College of Radiologists welcomes the chief medicalofficer's editorial on reducing harm from radiotherapy.¹ Inthe five years to April 2006, only 211 incidents of a dose greaterthan intended were reported under the IR(ME) regulations.² Manyof these were correctable by adjusting subsequent treatment.Patient injury is a rare event; this is as it should be fora non-emergency treatment given routinely to patients with anestablished diagnosis.

In June 2006 the Royal College of Radiologists set up a multidisciplinaryworking party to identify measures to prevent and mitigate errorsin radiotherapy. One of the main obstacles to this work is theculture of secrecy surrounding radiotherapy incidents. The systemfor reporting radiotherapy incidents in the United Kingdom isdysfunctional: the results of inquiries are secret; there isno dissemination of learning; errors are repeated; and publicconfidence is eroded.¹ Most of the incidents reported underthe . . . [Full text of this article]