R10bn medico-legal claims bomb

BODY BLOW: STAFF AND EQUIPMENT SHORTAGES, MISDIAGNOSES PARTIAL CAUSES OF CRISIS Cost threatens sustainability of Limpopo’s health system.

The R10 billion in medico-legal claims against the Limpopo health department has the potential to empty the provincial department’s purse and increase instability in the health system, opposition parties say.

This comes after a recent response to a parliamentary question indicating that Limpopo’s department of health paid out R266.8 million for 30 medico-legal claims from January 2020 to December 2023.

The department, according to the report, still has 903 medico-legal claims filed against it and spent R63.1 million on legal costs.

In 2022, Limpopo’s medico-legal claims stood at R14 billion.

In February the same year, Vhembe district health facilities had 500 medico-legal cases amounting to R5.2 billion, Capricorn district had 330 claims amounting to R2.3 billion, Mopani district had 322 cases amounting to R2.6 billion, Sekhukhune district has 305 cases amounting to R3 billion and Waterberg district has 118 cases amounting to R766

million. For the period between 2014-15 and 2021-22, the department registered 1 773 cases and incurred liabilities of R8.4 billion.

Vhembe district still accounts for the highest number of cases at

594m with the highest medico-legal liabilities at R5 billion.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo said: “The root cause of the high rate of litigation against the department is critical staff shortages in high-risk areas.

“This includes clinical errors, poor quality health care, lack of professionalism, poor communication and staff attitude, lack of equipment, failure to obtain informed consent, missed diagnoses, failure to conduct basic investigations and system errors, among others,” DA Limpopo provincial chair Lindy Wilson said.

She said the rise in claims showed that conditions in hospitals were worsening.

“Limpopo’s health facilities are in an appalling state and these claims threaten to bankrupt the health system.”

General secretary for the Bolsheviks party in Limpopo, Seun Mogotji, said the fish rots from the head.

“The health care system in Limpopo has deteriorated because the centre does not hold. The department will continue to bleed millions in medico-legal claims until the leadership takes charge. Serious action is needed to be taken here. Not tomorrow, not next week or after the May elections, but now,” said Mogotji.

The Limpopo department of health confirmed it is facing R10 billion of contingency liabilities.