The Gauteng Department of Health has been slammed for the alarmingly high amount paid out for medical negligence cases in recent years at various hospitals in the province.
Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, Jack Bloom, claimed that the department had paid out more than half a billion rand in the past two years to settle medical negligence cases.
The department is responsible for public hospitals including the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in Parktown.
Bloom said the Gauteng Health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, in a written reply to questions raised in the Gauteng Legislature, revealed that the department had to pay out R796-million in medical negligence cases since last year January.
“According to Mahlangu, R363-million has been paid so far this year for 73 medical negligence claims while R433-million was paid out last year,” he said.
“The department is [allegedly] facing a 124 further claims in court that amount to R1.62-billion in total.”
Bloom expressed shock at the amount of money being paid out for negligence and called on the department to improve quality care at state-run health facilities to curb the trend.
In response, Steve Mabona, spokesperson for the department, confirmed that the department had
settled 73 medical negligence claims since the beginning of the year to the tune of R363-million.
“[We can also confirm that] there are 124 cases in front of the court to the value of R1.6-billion that the department is defending and that we have been involved in 1 716 medical claims in the past five years, of which 121 cases were paid out while nine were successfully defended and won…through mediation,” he said.
Mabona remained mum on allegations regarding the high amount paid out over the past two years for medical negligence but said the department was taking steps to deal with claims more effectively and fairly.
This included appointing a team of legal experts to conduct a legal audit on medical legal matters which included providing legal analysis and devising strategies on how to defend claims that are defendable.
“We have also introduced a mediation process to deal with matters that are not defendable and settle them out of court to eliminate litigation costs, and also [better] training of doctors and nurses,” he explained.
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