Medical legal claims hampering healthcare

Gauteng MEC hopes court will help lighten load

The Gauteng government wants the law to be amended to alleviate its financial burden emanating from sky-rocketing costs of medical legal claims.

Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa yesterday expressed the sentiment during a media briefing in Johannesburg on how her department was beefing up child birth facilities in order to reduce maternal deaths.

Ramokgopa said she was concerned because SA’s medical legal claims for the public sector amounted to more than R37-billion at the end of March 2016 and Gauteng was the second-highest affected with claims amounting to more than R13.8-billion.

She said 70% of the medical legal claims related to child births and this was negatively affecting services being rendered by public health facilities.

“If we include the cost of accruals and the cost of medicolegal liabilities of at least 13 of the hospitals, their budget goes into the red. The law doesn’t allow budgeting for medico-legal cases,” Ramokgopa said.

“There needs to be a legislation intervention which would be similar to a Road Accident Fund.

“There should be a way of funding that liability other than from the current budget of the various clinics and hospitals, otherwise it becomes a vicious cycle where those facilities are not able to improve the services.”

The department has filed an application to the Constitutional Court that seeks to have government paying victims of medical negligence cases in a staggered manner based on public health rates.

“We hope the Constitutional Court will come with a common law that will allow the department to rather provide services for the future needs of the patient rather than having to pay for the next 40 years’ needs now.

“All other courts are saying that those future needs should be paid for now.

“Our main concern is that the affected area is around maternity services because cerebral palsy is the highest by far liability we are dealing with, that is why the focus is on obstetrics, neo-natal services and surgical areas,” Ramokgopa said.

The Constitutional Court will deliver the judgment on Thursday.