Gauteng’s Department of Health is mired in a sea of negligence claims, having paid out R623m for the first nine months of the 2023/24 financial year, and in the latest case, having to cough up more than R1m to an elderly woman after a botched knee surgery more than a decade ago.
A portion of the amount will go towards paying for domestic assistance while the remainder is for damages.
In its 2022/23 annual report, the department said there were 2 358 verified medico-legal claims against it as of 31 August 2022, and that the value of these had increased by 4% from R17.5bn in 2021/22 to R18.2bn in 2022/23.
In the latest case, TimesLIVE reports that Florence Radebe (64) and the Gauteng Health MEC went to court after an operation on 16 July 2013 on Radebe’s left knee at a public hospital left her unable to bend her knee.
Judgment was handed down in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) last Friday.
“The aim of the surgery was to replace her left knee with a prosthetic joint, which went badly wrong,” said Judge Stuart Wilson. “Though the knee joint was replaced, Radebe now cannot bend her knee at all. Her left leg is, as a result, is stuck in a fully extended position. She has apparently been in this condition for the past decade,” he summarised in his judgment.
The MEC accepted that the knee replacement surgery was negligently performed, and assumed liability for Radebe’s proven losses. In all but two respects, the MEC and Radebe agreed what those losses were.
The differences related to the extent to which Radebe would need help and “whether and to what extent the MEC should have to pay for such assistance”.
Another issue was on the compensation to which Radebe was entitled for “pain, suffering and loss of amenity of life”.
The MEC argued that while Radebe would require assistance as she ages, it would not be because of the surgery itself but rather “from the fact that she already had arthritis in her left knee and pain in both of her knees at the time of the operation”.
“I cannot accept this line of reasoning or the conclusion pressed from it. The evidence was that, though she was in pain before the operation, Radebe was mobile and able to perform a number of tasks associated with her job as a meat packer,” the judge said.
The MEC also argued, to highlight her previous immobility, that Radebe resigned several months before the surgery and relied on a crutch, but Wilson rejected this, saying “the weight of evidence was that, other than high blood pressure, Radebe was healthy and mobile before the surgery”.
Both the MEC and Radebe submitted figures, based on actuarial calculations, on what they thought would be a fair amount. The MEC's calculations came to R437 024 while Radebe’s amounted to R594 126.
Wilson eventually awarded her R438 250 despite the department undertaking to fund another surgery aimed at rehabilitating the knee, to which Radebe agreed.
“I heard no evidence on the likelihood of the rehabilitative surgery being successful. However, there was no serious dispute that surgeries of this nature are inherently riskier than straightforward knee replacement surgeries; that complete recovery is unlikely; and that the … extent of the likely improvement … as a result of the rehabilitative surgery is essentially unknowable,” the judge said.
On damages, the MEC said that R300 000 would be reasonable but Radebe asked for R1m.
Wilson eventually awarded her R850 000.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Gauteng Health 100% liable in R30m negligence claim, judge rules
Legal vacancies hobble Gauteng Health and negligence claims
Gauteng Health MEC blames ‘unscrupulous’ lawyers for R310m in bank attachments
Gauteng Health assets offered to settle mounting negligence claims
Gauteng Health negligence crisis because of ‘management problems’