A group of cancer patients who took legal action when a private hospital terminated a 15-year relationship with a controversial oncologist has triumphed in their court battle for continued care, with the judge saying the facility’s decision was unconstitutional.
On 15 April, Western Cape High Court Judge Eduard Wille ruled on the case involving oncologist Louis Kathan – lauded for his “outstanding” results – allowing his continued presence at Life Care Vincent Palotti Hospital Complex in Pinelands.
Terminating the relationship with Kathan “had constituted an interference with the rights to access healthcare services and was a breach of the negative obligations imposed on the hospital respondents”, the judge ruled, finding the decision also impeded the rights of the applicants to make decisions about their healthcare.
Daily Maverick reports that while Life Healthcare Holdings did not deny that the public had an interest in the hospital acting in a lawful, ethical and rational manner, it also appreciated that the decision had affected the health of Kathan’s patients – the judge saying that the public interest in the matter concerned fundamental constitutional rights.
“Self-evidently, the hospital respondents have a negative constitutional obligation not to undermine the right of access to healthcare… because of the peculiar facts of this matter,” he said.
The “peculiar facts” are what triggered the hospital’s decision to terminate the relationship with the oncologist after more than a decade.
Sexist, homophobe
Kathan was accused by management of having used derogatory racial terms and also making “sexually suggestive remarks about blonde women”.
Examples of Kathan’s behaviour were contained in court papers by Craig Koekemoer, a business operations executive at Life Healthcare Holdings, who set out the doctor’s having of chats around female colleagues about strip clubs, lap dances and how he preferred blondes.
Two employees had resigned because of this and the situation had become so unbearable that a chaperone had been appointed to accompany Kathan.
The chaperone has not been entirely successful in protecting the radiation therapy unit’s staff, as Kathan had allegedly threatened them.
Wille noted that Kathan had explained he was “not racist or homophobic as he is a homosexual man of colour”, while the hospital had contended that the doctor’s subjective intentions were irrelevant.
However, the judge ruled that Kathan had not used “these offending words in a racist or homophobic manner”. Therefore, the termination decision was arbitrary and disproportionate. There was also no justification for declining to implement a rehabilitation plan, he said.
Patients first
The decision by the hospital to kick out Kathan had negatively affected the cancer patients, depriving them of the treatment they had received for many years, Wille added, and terminating his admission and practising privileges from 1 August 2023 was inconsistent with the Constitution, and thus invalid.
It was also inconsistent with the hospital’s own “Code of Conduct and Policy on Management of Unacceptable Conduct by a Medical Practitioner”.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Judge rules in favour of ‘miracle doctor’ and against hospital
Cancer patients granted interdict to keep dismissed oncologist at Cape hospital