About a third of the public says that preventable medical errors occur often – both in general (7% “very” often, 29% “somewhat” often), and in their own care (8% “often”, 26% “sometimes”). However, The public is more likely to believe that medical errors are an infrequent occurrence in their own care than in care in general - 22% say their own health care providers “never” make mistakes in treating them, whereas just 8% say that, in general, medical errors happen “not often at all”.