Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department is forming a crack team of legal and medical experts to stem the rising tide of medical negligence claims against it, which this year totalled R10.6 billion.
The team of experts are expected to advise the department on whether to defend lawsuits or not.
An adjudicator, a medico-legal expert, is expected to be appointed to assess “high risk” and “adverse events” and advise the head of department on reports from health facilities.
Speaking at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts in the legislature on Tuesday, acting chief finance officer, Sihle Mkhize, said the department would establish a task team of legal and medical experts to assess the merits of defending individual cases versus settling out of court.
“Each legal case against the department will first be reviewed by and evaluated by this team of legal and medical experts who will provide their merits to the head of department,” he said.
Mkhize said the team would review cases relevant to their speciality when there is a lawsuit, and compile reports based on clinical records to be used in defence in courts.
Witnesses
“The team of medical experts, made up of retired experts, will be required to serve as expert witnesses in the respective litigation matters.
“Further, the department intends appointing a medico-legal expert, to be called the adjudicator,” he said.
Mkhize said the department has finalised investigations into the establishment of an adverse events task teams, to be established at healthfacilities.
The task teams would ensure “measures are taken in the facility to instil a culture of professional and ethical communication between colleagues and between health workers and the patient.”
News of the plans follow findings by Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu, that the outcome of the department’s lawsuits could not be determined when he audited the finances of the department in the 2015-16 financial year.
Makwetu also found that the department did not make provision for any liability that could result in financial statements submitted for audit purposes.
The department’s annual report puts the figure for the overall contingent liability at R13.105bn for 2015-16.
The claims for medico-legal claims and other lawsuits stood at R10.234bn for the same period. The amount ballooned from the R7bn recorded in 2014/15.
Daily News