‘Game over’ for fraudulent medical negligence claims
It is ‘game over’ for legal practitioners who have been submitting fraudulent medical negligence claims amounting to millions of rands out of ‘sheer greed’.
A TimesLIVE report notes they have been given two weeks to withdraw the claims before the SIU and the NPA take action.
The Department of Health and the SIU have uncovered abuse and fraudulent medical negligence claims by lawyers and law firms. In some cases, the so-called victims do not even exist.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi gave an update on investigations into medico-legal claims after a 2015 summit found a drastic increase in medical negligence claims.
‘Just as an example, a claim was submitted in which the claimant demanded R70m for a supposedly botched circumcision by a doctor in a hospital in Limpopo. On investigation of this claim, it was found out that no such circumcision was ever performed. It was found that the patient was actually treated for a very serious genital infection. The hospital actually saved his life,’ Motsoaledi explained.
In 2022, the SIU obtained a proclamation from President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate such fraudulent claims after it was found in 2017 that Gauteng and the Eastern Cape had the highest share of claims.
Following the proclamation, the SIU briefed the Health Department on 29 July on the progress of its investigations, which found that three provinces, Gauteng, KZN and Eastern Cape, had the highest number of claims.
The TimesLIVE report notes in total, the SIU completed investigations to the sum of R3.1bn from various health departments with this value expected to increase as the probes continue.
Motsoaledi has given legal practitioners who have put forward medico-legal claims the opportunity to withdraw them before they face the SIU.
‘We wish to take this opportunity to make an offer to lawyers, who might have knowingly submitted claims that are fraudulent, to withdraw them within two weeks and there will be no consequences. Failure to withdraw within two weeks would mean that the offer will have lapsed and the SIU will strike. Any employer found to be in collusion, the SIU will make sure they are charged and go to the NPA. The game is over – come and withdraw,’ he said.
The affected legal practitioners were referred to the Legal Practice Council for misconduct and the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund to consider reimbursing claimants whose funds were embezzled by their legal representatives.
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.
