Most of us are probably more nervous about flying than about checking into a hospital for a routine procedure. But according to Britain's chief medical officer, the risk of being killed in a hospital in a developed country due to medical error is around one in 300, while the risk of dying in an air accident is one in 10 million.
Liam Donaldson, who also chairs the World Health Organisation's World Alliance for Patient Safety, says such a gulf in safety standards is unacceptable, even after making allowances for the poor condition of many patients entering the hospital.
He says healthcare professionals need to learn from other sectors how to make safety a top priority.
Though other high-risk industries have systematically improved safety over a period of decades the healthcare industry has not and he says the airline industry is the most high-profile example.
He issued the warning at the start of a three-day summit on patient safety in London being attended by experts from across Europe.
According to a report this month from the National Audit Office, over 2,000 patients died in hospitals in Britain alone last year because of accidents and errors.
It appears that half of those cases, which included misdiagnoses, life-threatening delays in treatment and patients being given the wrong medication, could have been avoided if lessons from previous accidents had been learned.
