R796m paid for Gauteng medical negligence

25 August 2016

The Gauteng Health Department has paid out R796 million since January last year for medical negligence, and faces 124 further claims in court that amount to R1.62 billion in total.

This information is disclosed in a written reply by Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to Mahlangu, R363 million has been paid so far this year for 73 medical negligence claims, and R433 million was paid out last year.

The department has been involved with 1716 court cases concerning medical negligence in the past five years - only 9 of these were defended successfully, and 121 cases were paid out.

Mahlangu says that the department has appointed a team of legal experts to do an audit on medico legal matters, and has introduced a mediation process to deal with matters that are not defendable in order to settle out of court.

I am astounded by the huge amount of money paid for medical negligence and the enormous potential liability for further claims.

Many of these cases happened some years ago but every effort must be made to ensure that quality care on our hospitals curbs medical negligence as much as possible.

Particular attention is needed to improve care in maternity wards as court-ordered damages can be as high as R30 million for a brain-damaged child.

The key issue is prevention as no amount of money can compensate for the life-long suffering of injured patients and their families.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 25 August 2016