CLAIMING FOR NURSING NEGLIGENCE
HOSPITALS are supposed to be places you go to get better, but, particularly in South Africa, this is not always the case. In 2015, the government paid out R498 964 916.72 in medical negligence claims.
Negligence at Gauteng state hospitals has caused damage to more than 20 000 patients in the past twoand-a-half years, with R29 billion paid out in claims. Recent figures for claims against private hospitals and nursing homes aren’t available, with claims often settled quietly.
In a high proportion of successful negligence claims against hospitals, nursing negligence is to blame.
Nursing negligence occurs when nurses fail to follow accepted standards of care.
Nurses are responsible for performing their tasks within their scope of practice and for acting in the best interests of the patient at all times. Where failure to do this leads directly to harm to a patient, a personal injury claim may be pursued.
In her thesis titled “Investigation into the factors contributing to malpractice litigation in nursing practice within the private healthcare sector of Gauteng”, researcher Amy Williams notes that the moment a nurse acts irresponsibly and fails to perform a task according to policies and procedural guidelines, they can be liable for professional negligence.
Nursing negligence can result in serious harm to patients, including life-threatening events, the extension of hospitalisation, disability or death.
In studies conducted by Professor Ethelwynn Stellenberg of Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the most common factors that led to nursing malpractice were identified as: failure to follow guidelines, insufficient knowledge, poor patient monitoring, failure to administer prescribed medication, failure to respond to clinical signs and inadequate training.
Stellenberg warns that the quality of care is declining, in both the state sector and the private sector.
In South Africa, claims based on medical negligence are dealt with under common law – particularly on the basis of the law of delict, according to a report of the South African Law Reform Commission on Medico-Legal Claims.
Where nursing negligence leads to injury or a fatality, it’s not against the nursing staff that a personal injury claim is typically made. Instead, a claim may be made against the employer (the hospital), the owner of a private hospital or, in the case of injury at a state hospital, the MEC or Minister of Health.
People who want to claim should seek the help of a personal injury attorney who can offer a medicolegal team which has extensive experience in handling medical malpractice claims.