Angry doctors say fund owes them ‘millions’

JOHANNESBURG: The country’s doctors have hit back at the workmen’s compensation fund, saying it is in “denial” and turning “a blind eye” to the so-called continuous failure of the fund.

This after the acting commissioner of the fund, Vuyo Mafata, accused the SA Medical Association (Sama) of failing to meet with the fund in a bid to iron out their differences before approaching the media.

On Wednesday, Sama announced that it would be taking an “unprecedented step” in asking its members to treat Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases (COID) patients only if their conditions were life-threatening.

The organisation called the fund – which falls under the Department of Labour – “dysfunctional” and that patients were also bearing the brunt of the “collapsed system” as nearly all their claims weren’t being paid out, nor were claims by doctors paid.

On Friday, Sama chairperson Dr Mzukisi Grootboom said “the situation is dire and affecting our patients.

“The compensation fund is in denial and is refusing to accept the situation.”

This was in response to Mafata’s statements to the Cape Times’s sister paper, the Cape Argus, that Sama had in fact not agreed to their request to meet and address their challenges.

Mafata also said that one of the interventions was his secondment as acting commissioner of the fund, after Shadrack Mkhonto became the department’s chief operating officer.

He also said that the teething problems with their new IT systems – to address backlogs – were being addressed.

Grootboom said on Friday that a survey of 239 doctors – all of them not even members – showed they are owed, collectively, R108 million by the fund.

“Even the private hospitals are bleeding,” he added.