Surge in claims putting services at risk
Medical negligence claims against the state are rising at a ‘near exponential’ rate, leaving provincial health departments with an R80.4bn headache that is putting services at risk, according to data revealed in a detailed Business Day report. It says nine provincial health departments saw their medico-legal contingent liabilities increase by 33% year-on-year in 2017-18, to reach a level almost triple that of the 2014-15 financial year.
Should all the 2017-18 claims be successful, the cost would equal 41% of their total budgets of R196bn for the next year, according to the Treasury.
‘The provincial payouts are increasingly putting pressure on the budgets of provincial health departments, as funds have to be shifted away from service provision in order to pay the claims. What is particularly concerning is the rate at which the claims are increasing,’ said Treasury.
Business Day’s analysis of provincial health department annual reports for 2017-18 combined with the Treasury figures show medical negligence claims against the state rose from R28.61bn in 2014-15, to R43.12bn in 2015-16, and then rose to R60.48bn in 2016-17 and to R80.4bn in 2017-18.
The provinces paid out a total of R2.75bn during the 2017-18 year, the biggest slice of which occurred in the Eastern Cape, which paid out R876.7m. This is a significant increase on the year before, when the provinces paid out a collective R1.17bn. Hardest-hit provinces were Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KZN.
The Treasury said the ‘near exponential’ increase in claims and payouts was out of kilter with trends in SA’s healthcare quality and outcomes, and was being driven by a host of factors, ranging from increasingly litigious behaviour by law firms to poor record keeping and limited legal capacity within provincial health departments to defend themselves against claimants.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi conceded that many of the medical claims against the state were legitimate, but said provincial health departments had also seen a surge in claims for injuries sustained decades ago, fraudulent claims, and increased litigation by lawyers who had shifted their attention away from the technically insolvent Road Accident Fund to medical negligence matters.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
