Taxpayers fork out over R2.3 billion for medical negligence at state hospitals
Taxpayers have had to foot the bill for the South African government’s growing number of medical negligence claims, which have amounted to over 5,500 cases since 2014.
Medical negligence claims are legal claims for malpractice (e.g. leading to lifelong disability) in public health facilities.
Since the 2014/15 financial year to the 2016/17 financial year, over R2.3 billion has been paid to cover these claims – with the state’s contingent liability for the claims sitting at R56 billion.
The information was delivered by health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, responding to a parliamentary question seeking a breakdown of the costs, following the revelation by finance minister Malusi Gigaba in his budget speech, that R1.2 billion would be paid in the 2017/17 financial year to cover 1,934 such claims (R620,475 per claim).
According to Motsoaledi, R391.32 million was paid to cover 1,562 claims in 2014/15 (R250,524 per claim) and R730.87 million was paid to cover 1,732 claims in 2015/16 (R421,980 per claim).
360 claims have been lodged in the current (2017/18) financial year so far, amounting to R241 million, he said.
The claims cover wrong diagnosis, botched operations, botched amputations, anaesthetic deaths, uninformed consent and large amounts of obstetrics, gynaecology and maternity claims.
Weighing on the budget
According to Gigaba, though some of the claims are legitimate (as evidenced by the payouts), many of them are excessive and unjustified – citing the large contingent liability of R56 billion sitting on the government’s books.
A contingent liability is the total risk borne by the budget – not actual money paid – representing how much it would cost to cover all claims, as if they were justified.
Of concern was the fact that every year there were more claims, for higher amounts. The minister said that he wanted to establish a panel of professional medical and legal experts to defend against the claims.
South Africa’s budget can ill-afford to suffer the setback of billions of rands being paid out for over-zealous medical negligence claims, as the fiscus already has to deal with a projected tax revenue shortfall of R207 billion over the next three years.
In his budget statement, Gigaba said there were few options available to make up the losses, as cutting spending and raising or introducing new taxes would be met with resistance. He raised concerns over a possible tax revolt.
According to the DA, the root cause of the problems with public healthcare is the lack of specialists and nurses, adding that there are currently 38,000 vacancies in the sector that desperately need to be filled.
However, Motsoaledi said that it would cost R10.6 billion to fill them.
Loading ...