Posts tagged with 'provincial health departments'

 

Huge number of ‘medical legal claims’ against health departments – just another sheer sign that the NHI is doomed to failure

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The civil rights organisation AfriForum today expressed concern regarding the huge number of medical legal claims against provincial health departments.

Rapport yesterday reported that Kimi Makwetu, the Auditor General, concluded that these claims are much more in seven of the country’s provinces than the various departments’ industry budget for 2018/2019 and subsequently contain large risks for service delivery.

Dr Eugene Brink, AfriForum Spokesperson for health related matters, says these facts are extremely concerning. “These claims weren’t taken into consideration when the budget was compiled and successful claims will thus have to be paid from money that was intended for services. However, it is not only simply the number of negligence claims that is a matter of concern, but also huge amounts of irregular expenditure.

AfriForum recently particularly submitted criminal charges in all the provinces regarding this type of expenditure that amounted t
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Medical negligence claims in public health sector rise by 25%

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The sorry state of the public health sector is reflected in the sharp rise in medical negligence claims against provincial health departments, increasing by around 25% per year between 2011 and 2016.
Medical negligence claims rise by 25%.

This is according to Kirstie Haslam, partner at DSC Attorneys who says that the Gauteng Department of Health receives a particularly staggering number of negligence claims each year. Since January 2015, it has been forced to pay out more than R1.017bn to settle 185 medical negligence claims.

“Deteriorating conditions in state hospitals, as well as incompetence and gross negligence on the part of staff members, are at the root of these claims – the majority of which were ruled in favour of the plaintiffs,” Haslam explains.

She points out that several shocking cases of gross medical negligence have received media attention over the past few years.

Birth injuries

Haslam says that medical negligence claims involving
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Medical deans call on government to urgently address health crisis

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The South African Committee of Medical Deans (SACoMD) has called on the government to take drastic steps to address the ongoing health crisis in the country.

In a statement‚ the committee said that despite multiple interventions on the part of the minister of health and the National Department of Health‚ it was of the view that the health system in South Africa remained in crisis.

“The Cabinet’s recent decision to place the North West Health Department under administration of the national government in the wake of the health worker protests and the appointment of the Intervention Task Team in the Gauteng Health Department to advise on a turn-around strategy are indicative of a limping and indeed failing health system‚” the committee said. “The Deans are calling on Government to take drastic steps to address the systemic failures in the provincial health departments as a matter of priority‚” it added.
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Medical negligence claims in public health sector rise by 25%

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The sorry state of the public health sector is reflected in the sharp rise in medical negligence claims against provincial health departments, increasing by around 25% per year between 2011 and 2016. Medical negligence claims rise by 25%. This is according to Kirstie Haslam, partner at DSC Attorneys who says that the Gauteng Department of..
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