Johannesburg - The Gauteng Health Department paid R276 million over two years for 110 legal claims, the vast majority for medical negligence at public hospitals.
Gauteng DA health spokesman Jack Bloom said this was revealed in documents he had obtained from the department after making a Promotion of Access to Information Act application.
The highest payout was for R16.5m in the case of Kutloano Ntsebeng Makgomarela, who was brain damaged when she was born at Tembisa Hospital, Bloom said.
The sheriff of the court visited the department seven times in 2013/14 because of overdue payments, and R4.4m was wasted in paying interest on overdue amounts.
Bloom said R155m was paid for 59 legal claims in the 2013/14 financial year and R121m the previous year for 51 court cases.
“The upward trend in negligence cases is worrying, as is the department’s poor handling of these cases, as it has lost every single case in the past four years.
“I hope that the court cases spur action by the department to root out bad medical practices that injure patients,” Bloom said.
Gauteng Health Department spokesman Prince Hamnca confirmed the figures. He said the department was busy with regular training of nurses and doctors to reduce the number of negligence cases in the public health sector.
He said this would significantly bring down adverse legal cases against the department.
“The department is going to appoint public officers in all our institutions to assist people with negligence cases to report them directly to the department. This would ensure that those cases are dealt with speedily.
“In other instances, we realised that some of our patients’ files were stolen, which made it difficult for us to argue our cases in court,” Hamnca pointed out.
The Star