A total of 56 people died in 148 surgical operations that have been the subject of complaints to the Medical Council since January 2002, a seminar on medical professionalism was told yesterday.

Dr Thongdee Chaiphanich of the Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand said the figure was critically high but defended doctors, saying only a small number of cases resulted from mistreatment or misdiagnosis.

The doctors who received most complaints, in descending order, were surgeons, physicians, obstetricians, orthopaedists and paediatricians. The 148 complaints were made during a 55-month period from January 2002 to August 2006.

Complaints were lodged against surgeons in 18 cases dealing with head injuries, 17 appendix operations, 13 cosmetic breast transplants and 11 cosmetic facial operations, Dr Thongdee told the seminar at a Bangkok hospital.

Dr Anong Phienkijjakam, a Medical Council member, said doctors who could not save the lives of patients, despite their best efforts, had been victims of extremely high expectations of families. Doctors are burdened with the public's attitude that medical professionals rarely makes mistakes, he said.

Dr Pramual Weeruttamasen, of the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that of its 2,000 members, the number subjected to complaints had doubled to 400 in the past five years.

These cases involved operations in which newborn babies died or became disabled (33 per cent) or mothers died or became disabled (17 per cent).

Dr Saibua Cheejaroen, of the same institute, said its professional-ethics office had investigated 106 complaints, 78 involving childbirth, 19 involving gynaecologists and another nine in other cases, all in hospitals, both state-run and private.

The 106 cases involved the following major conditions: deaths of babies before and during delivery, internal injuries and haemorrhage, complications resulting from medication and sterilisation, and unexpected pregnancy, even after sterilisation.