High medical botch-ups a worry

On the face of it, a precedent-setting ruling in the Johannesburg High Court – which awards damages “in kind”, rather than monetary compensation – is a worrying development in relation to cases of medical negligence in state hospitals. Judge Raylene Keightley ruled that the Gauteng government does not have to pay financial compensation which would cover ongoing treatment for a seven-yearold girl, who developed cerebral palsy as a result of her botched delivery at a Gauteng hospital.

Instead, the province will have to provide her with future medical requirements at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg.

This, in effect, means the child is delivered back into the system which caused her disability in the first place.

Also, we worry that the fact that no monetary compensation was ordered (at least for part of the claim) could result in a situation where medical malpractice is not taken as seriously as it should be by the provincial government, which is already facing hundreds of court actions for damages in similar cases.

On the other hand, Keightley correctly noted the “increasingly large damages awards” could ultimately be linked to “an inevitable reduction in the resources available to meet its constitutional obligation progressively to realise the right to healthcare services for the population”.

It’s an unpleasant Catch 22 situation from which there is no real escape and no real winners … in easing the suffering on one person, do you then cause many more people to suffer?

What the judge did do, also correctly, was award substantial damages to the child’s mother to pay for those medical services not available at government institutions, as well as for loss of future income.

But it is still frightening that the number of medical negligence cases remains high.

That is a situation which requires serious intervention from the authorities.