Unecessary drugs to blame for too many unecessary deaths

Every so often, we hear news reports about accidental deaths or overdoses due to over-prescribed, often unnecessary drugs or surgery. But these seems to be rare, right? We'd like to think so, anyway. I recently read some alarming statistics on deaths in the US:

• 12,000 were caused by unnecessary surgery
• 7,000 were caused by medication errors in hospitals
• 20,000 were caused by other errors in hospitals
• 80,000 were caused by infections in hospitals
• 106,000 were caused by non-error, negative effects of drugs.

That's right -- in one of the most medically-advanced countries in the world, hundreds of thousands of people are dying at the hands of medical professionals by errors, unnecessary measures and other preventable causes. Does this seem odd to anyone else? I think its time we began questioning the motivations behind the 'remedies' we're being offered.