Power struggles in Health-care
Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician lived in the1800s. He was in charge of an obstetrics ward in a major hospital at a time when thousands of mothers and children were dying of ‘childbed fever’. Semmelweiss claimed this was caused by the transfer of particles from the hands of surgeons, who after performing autopsies would then do pelvic exams on mothers and deliver babies without washing their hands.
The death rate plummeted from an estimated 10-35% to 1% with this simple sanitation measure he instructed the surgeons to follow, this was in an era in the 1800’s before the germ theory was widely accepted. You would imagine for solving a major problem like that Semmelweiss would be hailed a hero. Actually his colleagues were outraged they were being blamed for the crisis and promptly ostracised him and the hospital refused to renew his contract.
He died in an asylum after being beaten by guards and suffering a form of septicaemia. Over the years new ideas have been suppressed by established hierarchical systems because those in charge feared loss of face, income or power.
