Claims for medical negligence against the state have more than tripled over the past four years, rising to a staggering R104.5bn in 2019, says a Business Day report.

It notes while only a fraction of these claims are likely to be upheld, provincial Health Departments have nevertheless faced a four-fold increase in payouts to victims of medical negligence over the same period.

This has sapped the resources available for providing services.

In 2018/2019, provincial departments paid out R1.9bn to successful claimants, equivalent to 1% of SA’s consolidated health budget of R208.8bn. The medical negligence figures are contained in the latest edition of the SA Health Review, due to be published today, which cites previously unpublished data from the Treasury.

Medical-negligence claims against the nine provinces rose steadily from R28.61bn in 2014/2015, to R43.12bn in 2015/2016, and then to R56.2bn in 2016/2017 and R80.4bn in 2017/2018, and then shot up 30.4% to R104.5bn in 2018/2019, the review shows.

The Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KZN accounted for three-quarters of the claims against provincial departments, and paid out two-thirds of the money handed over to successful claimants.

Hardest hit was the Eastern Cape, which faced claims totaling R29.1bn and paid out R797.4m to successful claimants in 2018/2019, or 2.9% of its R24bn budget.

The report says no provision is made in provincial health budgets for medical-negligence payouts.

Full Business Day report (subscription needed)