SEKHUKHUNE – The Limpopo DA said it was deeply concerned by the provincial Department of Health’s contingent liabilities of more than R14bn that stem from medico-legal cases against the department.
The DA indicated it would write to the Public Service Commission to investigate the medico-legal crisis the province is currently facing.
The party said these medico-legal cases could potentially cripple the Department of Health if the courts were to make rulings that the department was negligent and should pay. “The challenge with the cases is that neither the department nor the provincial administration has a budget to settle them if judgment was not in favour of the department in court. “The factors related to the root causes of the high rate of litigation against the department are critical staff shortages in high-risk areas, lack of professionalism, incompetence, poor communication and staff attitude, lack of equipment, lost records, failure to obtain informed consent, missed diagnosis, failure to conduct basic investigations and system errors,” revealed the DA’s Risham Maharaj, the party’s spokesperson on health matters.
He said his party had noted that the Limpopo Department of Health has established a turnaround strategy to deal with the litigations against it.
“We believe that the strategy will remain a plan on a paper with no real solutions to the reckless behaviour by numerous department officials due to non-accountability.” Vhembe District’s health facilities have 500 medico-legal cases amounting to R5.251bn, Capricorn District has 330 claims amounting to R2.356bn, Mopani District has 322 cases amounting R2.683bn, Sekhukhune District has 305 cases amounting to R3.006bn and Waterberg district has 118 cases amounting to R766.053m. The largest contributing hospitals to the medical negligence cases are Tshilidzini Hospital with R1.497bn, Donald Fraser Hospital with R1bn, Mankweng Hospital with R764m, Pietersburg Hospital with R625m, Philadelphia Hospital with R652m and Nkhensani Hospital with R600m. The number of claims relating to medical negligence has sharply escalated over the years.
“The rising number of claims in Limpopo shows that hospital conditions in the province are not improving and are offering substandard services to the province’s people.
“It is clear that firm steps are needed to improve the quality of care in the province’s hospitals to ensure they are functional and do not inflict further pain and injury on patients. The failure by the Limpopo MEC for health, Phophi Ramathuba, and the department to address litigation claims will result in the deterioration and further reduction of care in our healthcare system,” concluded Maharaj.
