The credit crisis has undermined people’s trust in bankers. But what about doctors? If the health sector inspectorate is right, they may be the next group of professionals to lose the trust placed in them by the public.

That is, if the scandal at two hospitals in Lelystad and Emmeloord is symptomatic of the sector.
The hospitals were recently forced to close operating theatres because the air in them was not sterile, leaving patients open to infection. The hospital director was blamed and suspended, apparently having been aware of the problem since April.
However, it has now emerged that surgeons also knew of the problem but continued to operate regardless of the infection risk to patients.
According to a health inspectorate report obtained by the Volkskrant, the medical staff’s behaviour was ‘reprehensible’ and ‘unacceptable’.
But that’s not all. It has also been revealed that agreed working practices were not followed and that everyone was ‘following their own version of basic protocol’.
Like in the credit crisis, one scratches one’s head and wonders how the management of a bank or a hospital go so wrong. Are surgeons as arrogant as some investment bankers who think they know better and can flout risk-management rules? Losing savings is painful, losing a life is catastrophic.
And what about the supervisory bodies who are supposed to ensure hospitals follow the rules? In this case they seem as bad as those in the financial sector who always try to close the door after the horse has bolted.