WHO: Going into hospital far riskier than flying

Millions of people across the globe die each year from medical errors and infections linked to healthcare and going into hospital is far riskier than flying, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday. "If you were admitted to hospital tomorrow in any country... your chances of being subjected to an error in your care would be something like 1 in 10. Your chances of dying due to an error in healthcare would be 1 in 300," Liam Donaldson, the WHO's newly appointed envoy for patient safety, told a news briefing. This compared with a risk of dying in an air crash of about 1 in 10 million passengers, according to Donaldson, formerly England's chief medical officer. "It shows that healthcare generally worldwide still has a long way to go," he said. Hundreds of millions of people suffer infections linked to healthcare each year.