Patients are generally not in a position to assess the treatment they receive from a doctor. Especially in developing countries, patients are often unaware even of basic information, such as available treatments and benefits (e.g. free treatment from a specialist). Similarly, pharmaceutical companies often know more about the effectiveness of drugs than the doctors that prescribe them.
Doctors need to have the power to make decisions about appropriate treatment for a patient. Yet it is often difficult to monitor the accuracy of those treatments, due to doctor-patient confidentiality. While limiting decision-making power may be used in some instances to counter corruption, it is clearly difficult to implement in all scenarios.
