R700 million medical blow in South Africa – and private hospitals are just as bad

Medical negligence claims in Gauteng have shot up this year, and both public and private hospitals are to blame.
This was explained by Johann Roux, Director at JR Attorneys, on the Money Show with Stephen Grootes.
Medical negligence claims paid out by the Gauteng health department skyrocketed 36% in the past year, rising to R696 million in 2023/24, compared to R512 million in the previous year, BusinessDay reported.
These numbers were provided by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, who said that most other provinces showed a decrease in medical negligence payments.
Gauteng, however, showed dismal performance, and these extra claims will cost and estimated additional R174 million.
According to Motsoaledi, this highlights the Gauteng Health Department’s continued failure to improve medical care, as reflected in the 7,117 serious adverse events recorded last year in Gauteng public hospitals.
While these numbers may have gone up notably this year, Gauteng has had a medical negligence problem for several years now.
During the 2021-2022 Financial Year, for example, Gauteng had 3,783 medical negligence claims.
The number of claims and their cost to the economy has only increased in recent years.
In the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year, ten claims were lodged for an amount of R98 million.
By March of this year, the Gauteng health department had paid R623 million to claimants who instituted medical negligence or malpractice proceedings against it in the span of only nine months.
This uptick in claims has also been noted by legal professionals in Gauteng who have seen notable increases in clients wanting to pursue medical negligence claims.
“I definitely have seen an increase in enquiries that we’ve received from patients that reside in Gauteng,” Roux said.
Even though claims this year are close to R700 million, this number may even be too low to reflect the true state of hospitals in the province, since just because someone has has a bad experience with the healthcare system does not mean they will have a legal claim.
“There’s a lot of people that are very unhappy with the healthcare system, but we would not necessarily have claims that you can prosecute further,” Roux explained.
Even when a matter does go to trial, proving the claim in court is just as difficult, and requires a lot of evidence.
“You would always need someone in the medical industry who looks at the matter objectively and tells you whether the treatment given was in accordance with a reasonable standard or not.”

Roux explained that while there have been some positive reforms in the realm of medical negligence claims, more progress is needed.
For example, the government has stipulated that in cases where big payments are made to patients to cover a lifetime worth of medical treatment, that money gets put in a trust.
Should the person pass away before all the money is used, the residue is then paid back to the department.
“I think that’s fair and just to both parties,” Roux said, explaining that he encourages this reform.
However, he explained that other areas, particularly surrounding the standard of care, are not satisfactory.
“There needs to be reform in regard to the standard of treatment given.”
“We get some atrocious cases where patients are not seen for two or three days in hospital and they lose arms and so forth.”
“That’s certainly where there needs to be reform.”
Many of these claims stem from South Africa’s public hospitals, which have received scrutiny for their high rates of medical negligence.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, the third biggest hospital in the world, in particular, has stood out for its poor performance in this regard.
In the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year, this hospital had the most claims lodged against it – eight claims of R114 million.
It seems, however, that this hospital has not managed to fix its problems.
Recently, an SABC exposé revealed that revealed shocking footage inside this hospital’s laboratory, which is run by the National Health Laboratory Services.
The lab receives an estimated 20,000 medical specimens a day for testing from inpatients, outpatients and over 20 surrounding clinics in Soweto.
However, many people do not receive their medical test results, due to them rotting and being thrown away as medical waste, or being lost under piles of medical samples in boxes.
While South Africa’s public hospitals are notorious for their medical negligence, Roux pointed out that private hospitals aren’t as much better as many people believe.
“The severe cases are spread equally between private and public hospitals,” he said, explaining that private hospitals have “serious problems”.
“I’m talking about instruments that are left behind, patients who catch fire in theatre… And these things you’d not expect in a private hospital setting.”
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