I am bemused by correspondents who say that "doctors were only doing their best", "the money's got to come from somewhere", we live in a compensation culture", etc.....
Thsiu sentimental view of the medical profession has got to stop. Doctors at all levels are very highly paid professionals. They don't enter the medical profession out of a sense of altruism. Of course they make mistakes, like everyone else. But everyone else's mistakes don't result in death or impaired lives. I have many friends who are doctors - they became doctors because they are good at science disciplines and medicine is an obvious career for them. To put it bluntly, they can't do much else! It makes me rather angry that if I were to make mistakes of the gravity that doctors (can) make, I would be fired. Doctors aren't saintly benefactors - they enjoy their work and they are highly paid for doing it. Of course doctors are "busy" - so is everyone else. OK - they treat people and they save lives. That is their job. If doctors can't deal with pressure, they might consider doing something else, like less highly paid teaching or research.