During her budget vote at the provincial legislative chambers in Lebowakgomo last week, Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba said the rise of medical malpractice litigation is a global crisis, and that the province was worried by the current contingent liability.

Ramathuba says this has become a threat to healthcare delivery in the province.

The Department of Health in Limpopo faces liabilities of over R14bn as the result of alleged medical negligence by staff at various departmental institutions across the province.

According to Ramathuba, a root cause analysis was done to determine the factors affecting the high litigation rate and a lack of adequate staff and equipment, poor attitude and inadequate skills were found to be contributors.

“We cannot rule out a possible collusion between government employees be it state attorneys or departmental officials, with the plaintiff lawyers and senior councils. A turnaround strategy was developed and it is being implemented. The unit has been reorganised and strengthened and is currently being led by a medical specialist who is also an advocate.”

Ramathuba says she understands there is a lot of interest in the matter and it is about time that the department considers legislative reforms to address the situation.

This, she said, is necessary as the budget simply doesn’t allow for amounts of this size.

“The legislative reforms will see us closing this tap because in this budget I am tabling today, there is no item that speaks to the tune of R14bn. This means that we must take money meant for patient medicine to settle the bill.” She says the painful part of this situation is that when the government is litigated, a huge chunk of the payout money goes to the lawyers.

“In one instance, the department was taken to court for R55m because of a cerebral palsy case, while the biggest amount we have so far seen paid out to the actual complainant, was not more than R3m. The rest of the money which is meant to go towards future medical care is often not used for this purpose, as the same patient ends up in a public hospital for treatment.”