Top legal posts vacant as Gauteng Health faces barrage of negligence claims

17 April 2023

The Gauteng Health Department has hundreds of medical negligence cases but 6 out of 26 positions in its Legal Services Unit are vacant, and its lawyers are burdened with about 240 cases each.

This is revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

I am concerned that three critical Director posts are vacant:

Director: Litigation

Director: Mediation

Director: Contracts

A medical doctor post is also vacant, as well as two clerical positions.

Nkomo-Ralehoko says “the ability of this unit to handle legal matters, particularly medical negligence, will be improved once the vacant posts have been filled.”

This Department gets about 150 new medical negligence claims each year, and total claims are more than R16 billion.

Another weakness is poor service contracts that often don’t have penalty clauses for non-performance.

Massive losses are suffered because negligence claims are handled incorrectly, and service delivery suffers when there are defective contracts.

The Department’s Legal unit should be fully staffed with top class people to ensure legal matters are dealt with professionally. This will save money and improve patient care in our hospitals.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 17 April 2023