Health Department faces claims of R105 billion for negligence

PARLIAMENT’s health portfolio committee has called on the Department of Health to take over the medical care of victims of medical negligence at public health institutions amid dissatisfaction with the amount of money allocated to victims from court settlements.

The committee feels that if the department could provide medical care to victims, this would trim billions of rand from successful medical litigations against it.

Currently, the department is facing legal claims to the tune of more than R105 billion for medical negligence by law firms while some of their clients think that they were being shortchanged on the total amount due to them.

Some of the beneficiaries of successful litigations instituted by Durban-based Friedman and Associates have complained about living in poverty despite each having received millions of rand as compensation for medical negligence. The firm has denied such allegations.

Portfolio committee chair Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo told the investigations unit that Health was facing a R26bn liability through litigation. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told the portfolio committee the department had settled R500 million.

The auditor-general’s 2019/20 report revealed in March this year that the government was facing claims totalling R147.12bn of which the majority, totalling R105bn, were due to medical negligence.

It has been reported that Eastern Cape Health led the pack with claims totalling R36.75bn, followed by Gauteng’s R23.8bn and R23.4bn for KwaZulu-Natal.

Dhlomo said limitations were a huge burden for Health, which required properly trained healthcare workers to deal with the situation.

“If the department can do that (take over the medical care of victims), that can reduce a big burden on the department to pay the fees claimed to be for future medical care.

“They (Health) could just pay out what will be the amount to live from day one to day two and continuously, but the future medical care will be absorbed by the department,” said Dhlomo.

It is understood that Friedman & Associates had secured itself more than R1bn worth of claims against KZN Health. But its clients, some of whom have received a settlement of more than R10m each, are still living in poverty as they had limited access to their money. Most of Friedman’s clients were mothers of children who were born with permanent physical or mental disabilities, including cerebral palsy caused by medical negligence at birth.

Plexus Wealth, which is administering Friedman’s client trust funds, has also been accused of keeping beneficiaries' mothers or guardians in the dark about the money.

Legally, the firms are not supposed to charge more than 25% of their clients’ settlement and the defendants contribute to payment to lawyers. | Investigations Unit – investigations@ inl.co.za