It's all right now

Doctors face a daily dilemma, prescribing drugs and performing procedures that have undesirable side effects. Anti-inflammatory drugs can cause peptic ulcer and death; vaccines kill; all medicine carries a health warning, and “keyhole” surgery is no exception. World in Action asked three questions: is minimal access surgery safe? is it an advance on conventional surgery? and, should its introduction have been more closely supervised?

The programme featured patients who had experienced serious, even fatal, complications after minimal access surgery. There was a strong implication that surgeons had not been entirely honest with patients, hiding serious risks of injury. There was also an implication that potential financial savings had encouraged complacency. The programme included interviews with experts whose …