An Eastern Cape High Court judge has drawn the line regarding the provincial MEC’s offer to pay off – in instalments – the nearly R5m awarded to the mother of a child born with cerebral palsy.
IOL reports that earlier, the court had ordered the Department of Health to pay more than R4.7m to the mother – but the MEC said budget constraints prevented it from paying this amount in one go.
Additionally, claimed the MEC, if this amount were paid all at once, other patients would suffer from the resulting financial shortfall.
But counsel for the mother argued that the family needed the money to care for the child and demanded that the money be paid all at once.
The mother had sued for damages after the child’s birth at Madwaleni Hospital and subsequent brain injury resulting from the staff’s negligence.
In September 2022, the court had ordered the department to pay more than R4.7m in damages, which was due to be held in a trust account, but the money has never been paid.
The family has now turned to court yet again.
The MEC said it was” in the interests of all persons requiring access to public healthcare services that the damages be paid in instalments”.
Judge Lindiwe Rusi, in the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha), said the law was in place to promote accountability, efficiency, and financial stability in the administration of government departments as well as safeguard the rights of a litigant who successfully litigates against the state.
While it allows for periodic payments in certain cases, the state (the MEC in this case) must specifically prove that paying the full amount will cause the state harm and impact its service delivery duties. This was not done.
She said the child’s needs had to be balanced against those of the state – and an unsubstantiated assertion regarding budgetary constraints and obligation towards other beneficiaries does not assist the MEC in this case.
The judge added that if she allowed the MEC to pay the damages in two instalments, that would mean that the child’s interests had been arbitrarily relegated to insignificance.
She ordered the department to pay the entire amount of damages within 30 days of this order.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Judge slams attorney for mishandling cerebral palsy case
Eastern Cape women’s lives at risk in maternity wards, commission finds
Eastern Cape Health slammed over negligence claims
Lifetime cost of care in cerebral palsy medical negligence claims