In less a year, the Gauteng Health Department paid out R623m in negligence or malpractice proceedings – and R597m to private lawyers and state legal services, bringing the overspend for medico-legal claims to 20% for the current financial year.
News24 reports that one of the cases lost by the department’s attorneys during this period dates back seven years, where the Gauteng High Court found in favour of a former breadwinner – now a debt-riddled invalid – who lost his leg after being made to wait seven hours for treatment.
It is yet to be determined how much the provincial Health MEC is liable for the loss of the man's limb, resulting from lack of medical attention for a simple knee sprain that caused a blocked blood vessel.
In the incident, in 2016, Chris Hani Baragwanath had made him wait hours for proper medical attention, and despite surgeons’ later efforts, the prolonged loss of blood to his lower right leg eventually led to amputation two weeks later.
His attorney is seeking R15m for his client’s suffering.
His case will probably leave the department millions poorer for a procedure that would have cost “a couple of thousand” to complete and would have allowed him to hobble out of the hospital with both his legs.
“There was simply no excuse for the delay,” the man said. “Theatres were available, staff were there. Why didn’t they just help me?”
In court, Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko denied her staff had been negligent.
However, Judge Stuart Wilson ruled: “It has, in my view, been established on a balance of probabilities that the failure to … address the occlusion of his popliteal artery in the seven-and-a-quarter hours between 04:30 (when he was admitted) and 11:45 (when he was seen to by a vascular surgeon), was negligent.”
Blame Covid
The department blamed the increase in claims on “lost court time caused by the Covid-19 pandemic during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years”.
“This had an impact on the amount and frequency of payments made during that period,” said department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba, adding that cerebral palsy was the predominant nature of the cases.
Recent interventions at clinical level to improve services to decrease claims included raising awareness of complaints mechanisms “to allow patients to voice their dissatisfaction if they are unhappy” and a change management programme, launched to tackle staff attitude and “improve morale to create a culture of empathy and compassion that permeates every aspect of our healthcare delivery”.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
MEC liable for damages after man’s leg amputated
Gauteng medico-legal claims decline
R7bn medico-legal claims disparity in Gauteng Health report
Reducing medico-legal claims to be included in Gauteng hospital CEOs contracts