Limpopo digitises hospital records to curb legal claims

The Limpopo provincial government is hoping that the digitisation of hospital records will reduce indefensible legal claims against the health department because records are missing or incomplete.

The records are being moved from insecure storerooms to the cloud by Joburg-based company Veritas Digital, which is nearing the end of a five-year R1 billion contract to digitise the medical records.

The process should be completed by the end of July this year when records from all 523 of the province’s hospitals and clinics will have been uploaded.

The project is set to be rolled out in the other eight provinces.

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Department’s legal woes

The digitisation contract was awarded after lawyers milked the department’s coffers dry through medico contingency legal claims.

Between the 2023 and 2024 financial year, the legal claims ran into a staggering R14 billion.

This was after lawyers representing patients went to courts claiming millions of rands after medical files got lost, destroyed, damaged or went missing.

Some patients had to wait for months while nurses and doctors were trying to locate their files.

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Almost complete

Yesterday, Veritas Digital’s chief executive officer Glenvin Latchmanan said the company has digitised about 75% of the patient files in the province, with around 70% coming from the province’s 40 hospitals.

He said about 25% of these files were active and were awaiting completion of the central health information system (CHIS), which is being built in the province.

The digitised patient files would then be moved to CHIS, enabling patients to have access to their full patient history anywhere, anytime in the province.

“The cost savings in repeat treatments and diagnostics for the department will be significant,” he said.

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Some of the benefits of digitalisation of patient files, according to Latchmanan, are faster access to information, reduced errors, better communication and efficiency, faster data analytics and improved hospital management systems.

Opposition from the DA

But DA provincial leader in Limpopo Lindy Wilson branded the project a noose around the neck of the health system and alleged it was a milk cow for politicians.

According to a service level agreement, Veritas charged the department R1 per A4 copy and R20 for a 4A0 size copy.

The DA’s claims were dismissed by department spokesperson Neil Shikwambana who said: “We are convinced the project is worth every cent we are spending on it. If the DA or anyone else thinks otherwise they are welcome to visit our warehouse to check what is happening.”

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