Gauteng Health and Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko says her department has recorded a 7% decline in medico-legal litigations claims against the department.
Last year, the MEC revealed that her department had more than R30 billion in legal claims which dated back to as far as 2003. These, she said, had come down to just over R24bn as of the end of this year, adding that these were due to stringent measures undertaken by her administration to take control of matters.
Nkomo-Ralehoko, who spoke to The Star on Tuesday, said there was a syndicate of lawyers and doctors who manipulate systems in order to benefit from litigations against her department, and that these were being dealt with.
“Medico-legal claims are still a major concern for the department. However, we have managed to bring down the rand value of medico-legal claims and the contingent liabilities to R20.8bn as of the end of March,“ she said.
She said the work of verifying the cases would continue under a legal intervention strategy developed to address the negligence claims, with collusion between lawyers and doctors said to be the biggest contributors to the problem.
“We have found that certain hospitals have rent-a-child syndicates, while in some hospitals doctors and lawyers collude to fleece the department of money that should be used to provided services. We do have files and we are investigating some of these claims,” she said.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said she was happy that she and her team had been able to reduce the number of litigations, adding that this assisted the department in saving money.
The MEC said since the department managed to curb the litigation, they were able to put the money to good use.
“We are improving our record filing system to avoid losing files and this ends up costing us cases in courts because some people literally pay nurses to steal files at the hospitals.
“We have taken a decision to strengthen the systems of recognition. I have roped in a technical survey guy who will oversee this project and I have asked him to start at big hospitals because if we can make an impact there, we will be able to make bigger changes in small hospitals,” she added.
Nkomo-Ralehoko continued to say the system would also help health professionals in tracking people who were coming from outside the country and provide an idea of how many they had assisted and where.
She said the system would also safeguard against patients who move from one health facility to another in a quest to get more medication.
Earlier last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) had ordered the department to pay a woman who was harmed during gall bladder surgery almost R880 000 to cover her future treatment in the private sector.
In the previous years, the department had seen a significant rise in cases of patient negligence in public hospitals which according to reports jumped from 4 701 in 2020 to 6 910 recorded in 2021 – a 47% increase over the year.
The Gauteng Health Department had received 157 new summonses in the last year which claimed R1.6bn for medical negligence.
This information was disclosed in a presentation by the department at a meeting of the Gauteng Legislature’s health committee.
She said that revamping hospitals was her top priority, having already brought about changes in the majority of Gauteng’s hospitals.
“It is a huge province but it does not mean we must relax. We must improve. This province used to be one of the best provinces in terms of health services. So there is nothing that must take us down now. And I think I am one of those that must improve it.”
Nkomo-Ralehoko, who has been at the helm for just over 16 months ahead of the elections, said it was her wish to finish strong and continue on the solid ground she and her team had laid in turning the department around following years of corruption.
“We want to finish strong. I must make sure that we are making a huge difference to the citizens. Come May or end of May everybody must see that this is the best thing in the country,” she said.
The Star