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Comment by peanutz454 | Hacker News Reader

I am sorry if this is insensitive, but thank God it is difficult to sue a doctor for misdiagnosis. If it were easy, there would be hardly any doctors in the world. Also, maybe I come from a different position but I get a second consult for just about any non-minor ailment I have ever had. Instead of suing doctors, "get second opinion" should be the thing! Every doctor tries their best, its years of toil and labor, and they can make mistakes. Please do not leave such important decision in the hand of one person under the assumption that they are an expert. I understand if you do not have money or time, but the consequence of a misdiagnosis are going to hurt you.

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I agree with you now. At the time I believed going to a place like BS&W got me doctors who had peers. In hindsight that was probably a big assumption.

> Every doctor tries their best,

This could not be more false. The bell curve also applies to doctors.

you're mistaking aptitude for effort.

a great doctor who phones it in because he's got Sixers tickets that evening can still get you killed.

Effort also follows a bell curve. You can have an incompetent and lazy doctor at the same time.

At the very least, if you get a second opinion that's different from the first, and it turns out to be the correct one, you should be able to get your money back from the first doctor.

I am not claiming to be all aware on the big picture, but based on my personal experience till now as an Australian, an even better solution is free Medicare.

under the free medicare are you able to go see a different doc for the same thing just to get a second opinion? Is it much hassle/paperwork to get approved?

You just pick a doctor and make an appointment. What is this approval you speak of ?

Yes - no more hassle than the first appointment

It's not "free" (unless bulk-billed), depends on what specialist and what type of appointment is involved but will range from $20-100

You can go for as many as you like

Sorry, its not exactly free like I described. When you are seeing experts (and when you really need second consult) you get back a small part of your money, but expert costs are high enough to deter most people from getting second opinion. But, no it is not a lot of hassle/paperwork for seeking second opinion.

I find it is about the right cost (location depending)

I've been seeing a specialist for six years under this system, and he has had to close his books for the past two years

There are genuine shortages for a lot of specialists - they personally seem very over worked to me (well paid though)

If a disease is as extreme as the OP though I'm sure the ~$400 max isn't a life altering barrier to entry to a second opinion though

You wouldn’t need to get “approved” to do so…

You’d go back to your regular non-specialist doctor, your GP, and ask for a new referral to a specialist, explain that you want a different one, and why… the GP would give you the referral.

You might end up seeing a “private” specialist - Medicare would pay some money toward it, but the gap, the extra bit, you pay yourself (or if you have medical insurance, your insurer pays it). The insurer doesn’t waste time checking before hand whether you are or are not “approved” - and the “gap” for seeing a specialist might be $200, not much more than that.

If you don’t want to pay any money, then you wait longer for a “public” specialist to be available. It might be the same actual specialist btw, as the public hospitals are good hospitals.

> free Medicare

Does not exist for a growing number of Australians. No clinic in practical range of me bulk bills any more.

Yeah this. I guess we all have some story, bigger or smaller, when doctor didn't do perfect diagnosis or treatment.

Take a look form different perspective - if you do software, have you ever created a bug? Imagine if your employer wanted to vengefully sue you for every other bug you ever did - that's what many doctors are facing with various patients. Maybe you yourself are perfectly stable well balanced individual, but our of those 2000 other patients some are bipolar, schizophrenic, sociopathic etc. without proper diagnosis and treatment.

We outsiders often tend to have this image of medicine being a solved problem, when reality is so far from this.

How do you know which one is correct though?

How about if doctors were required to work for larger entities with deep pockets (e.g. HMOs, hospitals, the private partnerships backing plastic surgeries, etc), and we could easily sue those?

Or we could just cut out a step, and have those entities put a warranty on the treatments doctors working for them provide. Not satisfied with a treatment? "Return it" and get your money back!

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