DA: Gauteng hospitals facing R1.6bn in negligence claims
The DA says Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto is responsible for a disproportionate number of medical negligence claims in Gauteng.
The claims include several by the parents of children who suffered brain damage during birth at the hospital.
The DA’s Jack Bloom says Gauteng Health Department received 157 new summonses in the last year which claim R1.6 billion for medical negligence.
Bloom says the figures were revealed at a meeting of the Gauteng legislature’s health committee.
“According to the department, medical-legal litigation continues to increase, and extraordinary measures must be taken to prevent a possible collapse of the health care system.
“The department also identifies the legal attachment of funds as a huge challenge to the financial sustainability of the department as they diminish the ability of the department to render health services to patients as it is obliged to do in terms of Section 27 of the Constitution.”
Bloom says the fact that negligence claims are increasing, rather than decreasing, is of great concern.
“Our hospitals urgently need better management, the filling of staff vacancies, and proper equipment, especially in maternity units where most of the court cases arise because of babies injured at birth.”
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