For the past decade, ballooning medico-legal claims, now at close to R40-billion, have been a catastrophe for the Eastern Cape Health Department. Faced with a double-edged sword of having to pay a significant part of a diminishing budget in damages and ...
“We are not floundering,” the head of the Eastern Cape Health Department, Dr Rolene Wagner, said as she discussed the latest ruling in the department’s ongoing fight against a mounting number of legal claims. “We have a strategy, and we are doing the work. This is a big win for us.
Future medical expenses for treatment in the private sector often makes up the bulk of most medico-legal claims for damages instituted for babies who suffered birth injuries in state hospitals. Congratulatory WhatsApp messages were the order of the day when the ruling came down. “We saw it as impossible,” one addressed to Wagner reads, “but your positive attitude motivated everyone and moved with it.”
Griffiths ruled that the common law must be developed to alter how damages are paid instead of paying millions of rands in lump sum payments. She added that she believed the province is ready to provide care, especially to babies with cerebral palsy due to birthing injuries, as these are the highest monetary claims for future medical expenses faced by the department.
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