Moves by Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to curb fraudulent medicolegal claims in South Africa cannot come a moment too soon as KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) faces a staggering R29billion in claims.
The province is ranked highest in the country with Gauteng at R24billion and the Eastern Cape with R22.3billion. This as the Special Investigating Unit investigates claims lodged against the Department of Health (DoH) across the country.
According to reports, KZN has a total of 2 440 claims, with 713 of these currently under SIU investigation. This is a sharp increase from the end of 2023, where the contingent liability was almost R20billion with 1 678 cases.
The DA is not surprised that KZN ranks highest in the country in terms of medico-legal claim contingent liability. The reality is that our province has a broken healthcare system and to blame unscrupulous legal practitioners and staff is simply an embarrassment.
Collusion, racketeering and unscrupulous behaviour are just one cut of the pie while human error on the part of health practitioners is another.
Then there is the stark reality that healthcare practitioners sometimes have their hands tied behind their backs, without sufficient equipment, medicines, ambulances and staff. The result is delays in getting to patients and providing the correct treatment while their health worsens.
Yet another piece of the pie that is KZN’s broken healthcare system is inadequate record keeping, lost files, illegible writing and those who make money by selling files to crooked legal practitioners.
Overall, it is this broken healthcare system that is to blame for the staggering number of medico-legal claims and citizens who lawfully exercise their right to sue the state for negligence are within their right to do so.
To fix the problem, KZN’s government of provincial unity (GPU) must quickly begin to heal the fractured system. Work-ethic and proper management, medicines, equipment, staff, digitising of records, working with the private sector, sourcing donor funding and other remedies are urgent. Above all, there must be accountability through fearless and rigorous oversight.
The DA will continue to monitor KZN’s medico-legal claims which will continue to weigh down our healthcare system until it is fixed. We also remain committed to unannounced oversight inspections – as per Premier Ntuli’s pledge during his inaugural State of the Province Address (SOPA) – until such time as a real difference is felt.