MBOMBELA – The amount of money claimed for medical negligence from the Department of Health totals more than what is being awarded to certain programmes within the department.
The DA pointed this out as it received feedback from health MEC, Mr Gillion Mashego, during a parliamentary question-and-answer session last week.
Lowvelder reported in March that a total of 151 claims to the value of R387,3 million for alleged medical negligence, had been made against the department in the 2013/14 financial year.
Also read: Medical negligence claims against department totals millions
According to a statement by the DA, Mashego stated that 343 legal cases totalling R2,9 billion had been lodged against the department in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years.
According to Ms Jane Sithole, DA MPL for health and social development, not a single departmental official has been held liable, even though the department has conducted investigations into the incidents of alleged misconduct.
The DA provided the newspaper with annexures the MEC had submitted as background to his answers. Although some of the cases are still pending, it paints a horrific picture of the alleged incompetence in state hospitals.
In 2012/13, only R220 000 was paid out to claimants. In the 2013/14 financial year, R44,1 million was paid out to claimants, of which the biggest was a claim of R19,5 million.
In 2014/15, 202 cases of medical negligence were registered against the department. Of these, 114 were because of alleged injuries sustained during patients’ stays in state hospitals. The rest of the claims involved obstetrics and orthopaedic surgery.
Twenty nine of these patients were treated at Tintswalo Hospital, 18 at Themba and 16 at Rob Ferreira. Claims ranged from R85 000 to R21 million.
Mashego added that the department had paid R3,7 million to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&C) for legal fees in 2012/13. The amount for 2013/14 was R6,6 million. The debt hasn’t been settled yet because of outstanding documents from the DOJ&C.
“The irony is that Mashego has continued curtailing departmental costs in order to pay legal fees and monies awarded to claimants, however the amounts being claimed by aggrieved patients in one financial year is already more than the budget for the one on provincial hospital services,” Sithole added.
