Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has instructed his department to readvertise a tender for private companies to assist in its bid to reduce its expenditure on medico-legal claims, News24 reports.
In 2019, National Treasury gave the department R72m to get a "better handle" on medico-legal claims, whereafter a transversal tender was issued for a company with legal, forensic investigation, data analysis and capturing skills to be drafted.
In April 2019, the department's director-general approved five companies for a three-year period.
Yesterday, Motsoaledi told a joint meeting of three parliamentary committees that the department wanted to develop internal capacity to take over after the expiration of the contracts in December 2022.
"I do not think that this is feasible. I have instructed the department to urgently readvertise the tender to look for these skills.
"This is because these companies have the capacity to pick up a lot of claims that are invalid or fraudulent, more than our officials can.
"These companies assisted in collating claims from all the provinces and their analyses helped to pick up patterns, including lawyers lodging fraudulent claims.
"Sometimes they write to a lawyer to (request further) information. But instead of that information coming through, the case is immediately withdrawn.
"We noticed it was being withdrawn because the lawyer didn't think there would be an inquiry or investigation, that we would just be going to court.
"Now when you receive a letter from an expert, a letter that says you are from a (reputable) company, then they immediately withdraw," said Motsoaledi.
He added he did not believe the government could fulfil this function internally.
"I don't think it's possible in the state to keep people with forensic investigation expertise.
"We already know that they could pick up things that you ordinarily won't be able to."
Motsoaledi has instructed the director-general to advertise this contract.
The department had referred cases to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) when it became evident some of these claims were fraudulent, he said.
Since being authorised by President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate corruption, fraud and maladministration, the SIU had since 2017 saved various provincial Health Departments R3 104 684 800, an amount he believed would increase as investigations continued.
Doctors mostly on the receiving end of the litigation are obstetricians and gynaecologists, Motsoaledi said, as most claims involved cerebral palsy.
Motsoaledi argued for a "fairer compensation mechanism, like those used in Scandinavian countries, to be designed to benefit people with legitimate claims".
"This is whereby panels of retired judges, senior medical and nursing staff, solicitors and social workers are put together.
"Their purpose is to determine and arrive at a fair compensation for those who have experienced medical injuries rather than a legal shootout in court," he said.
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