Doctors (who do mistakes) are there to give the best solutions to health problems. I believe there are enough actually sick people to go around and to truly treat that would already give them big salaries, without having to fool people into believing they are sick and peddling pharmaceuticals. No one forces cancer patients to go to a doctor in the first place, or to engage in treatment if they don't want to.

While it is very easy to pull up cases of the doctors being "wrong", like the guy being told "he had two months to live" whereas he actually went into remission, I think this is often skewed. On what basis did they tell him he had 2 months to live? Probably on statistical information of the survivorship rates for the type of cancer he had. Relative to this case, how many people that are told they will die in 2 months do actually die in 2 months? Probably the majority. There are people who survive being shot in the head, yet the majority do die.
The doctors are not ultimate source of knowledge, and some people may be well-informed, or even better informed than they are on certain things. Yet, the truth is that the majority of the population are idiots. Anyone who works in retail will tell you this. Most people are not well enough informed nor do they care to be, to make many judgments. That's why we have experts and representatives. That's the same way government works. It doesn't mean that the experts are infallible, but most of the time the average opinion is less informed.

The woman with the nerve damage that was very angry about not being told about the possible side effects of the treatment - this is ludicrous. Would she rather have chosen to die from cancer than have nerve damage? What a tragedy that the oncologist may not have had time to go through every exhaustive possible permutation of outcomes and possible subjective perception of sensations she may have. Did she even really have any nerve damage if it was "relieved" in a few minutes? Due to the high level of luxury and legal recourses (litigation), developed nations have produced a heightened level of sensitivity in people. In developing countries people with one arm will be doing regular jobs or a guy with a gunshot wound will silently wait for hours for treatment. In the west, the first person will go on disability for the rest of their life and request antidepressants and a shrink to deal with the horror of only having one arm. A person a skin rash will demand instant medical access and whine about having to wait half an hour. People sue McDonald's because the coffee was too hot and this caused them to drop it and burn themselves. Or a company is sued because someone slipped and fell on the sidewalk in front of their store. Is it that the company is evil and negligent, or is it that many of these people are lazy, selfish, clumsy and oblivious idiots who love to complain and launch frivolous lawsuits in the hopes of getting some money?
In fact, I believe part of the reason doctors over-prescribe drugs is to accommodate many of the frivolous whinings. Doctor, I know antibiotics don't do anything to cure the flu, but in my expert opinion, I suspect I also have an opportunistic bacterial infection. Doctor, my dog just died, and I'm very depressed by this deep loss - can you give me some Prozac? Doctor, I have trouble sleeping, can you give me some pills? Doctor, I'm feeling tired a lot lately, can you run some tests? Etc.
Check this "condition" for example:
http://www.arthritis.ca/types%20of%20arthritis/fibromyalgia/
Fibromyalgia. I won't go as far as to say that none of these individuals have an actual health problem, but the only people I've personally encountered that had this were pasty, out-of-shape, overly observant types. People who will describe the sensation of ortho-static hypotension (headrush) when you stand up too quickly. Or people who will go to a specialist because they think they are going blind, because they've just realized that they have a blind spot in each eye (that every human has). What are the symptoms of fibromyalgia? Being tired, having sore muscles, poor memory, depression, stiffness, trouble sleeping. These could all just as easily be called stress. Or living a sedentary lifestyle. Or not sleeping enough. But instead, these people will find solace in having some happy pills prescribed as the cure!