Covid-19: Your rights when healthcare fails you
Expert advice on what to do when a health institution deviates from minimum standards.
If you are infected with Covid-19 as a result of a healthcare practitioner or institution’s negligence or malpractice, you may sue them. This is according to Mthokozisi Maphumulo, a Litigation Attorney at Adams and Adams.
Despite being told by government not to panic, many South Africans are worried about the 2019 coronavirus (Covid-19) and fear being infected. When two hospitals recently reported that their staff, healthcare workers and patients contracted the Covid-19, it added fuel to the fire.
“We have already seen with “mass infections” at St Augustine Hospital and Morningside Clinic that even in these hospitals (despite these being highly rated and respected), transmission is possible.”
“More than 40 patients and health-workers have been infected at St Augustine,” says Maphumulo.
“With recently introduced mass screening taking place, some South Africans are worried that those who test them for the virus may end up transmitting it.”
Certain questions relating to these fears must be asked. Maphumulo listed some of them:
- What happens to patients who contract the virus while admitted to hospital for something else?
- Could infection be the result of negligence by the hospitals that do not have precautionary measures in place?
- What action can be taken by an individual(s) for negligence or malpractice by health practitioners?
Covid-19 patients may be negatively impacted as a result of infection. If this is due to medical negligence or malpratice, they have the right to litigate.
In using terms like “legal action” and “litigation,” Maphumulo refers to suing a person or entity in court. If, hypothetically speaking, a subject of mass screening contracts the virus while being hospitalised or mass-screened, they may take legal action against relevant role-players. The same is true where a health-worker or institution acts negligently.
As reported on widely in the news for at least a decade, South Africa’s healthcare system is strained. Maphumulo believes that the new coronavirus increases the pressure and may lead to an increase in law suits against healthcare workers and establishments.
Maphumulo acknowledged that South Africa has had great successes thus far in “flattening the curve”(preventing the Covid-19 infection rate from rapidly rising) through its proactive and effective approach. Yet no government or private hospital is immune to being sued if medical assistance to Covid-19 patients falls below the accepted standard.
Contracting the virus may result in dire consequences. When this is considered, the patient’s right to sue is emphasised even more. Maphumulo enlightens Caxton Local Media readers on aspects of medical malpractice litigation.
Firstly, he qualifies that someone who sues is called a plaintiff. The counterparty is called a defendant.
Proving that negligence or malpractice on the part of a defendant caused a plaintiff’s injury, damages or losses, is a matter of evidence. “Documentary and circumstantial evidence will be of great use herein,” he says.
He also expounds on the burden of proof resting on the plaintiff. “The plaintiff has to prove a prima facie case (case on face value) on the balance of probabilities. The defendant must then disprove the prima facie case, which may not be an easy task,” he explains, adding that the success or failure of each claim will depend on the circumstances of each case.
Should the proposed probe into incidents of alleged negligence or malpractice prove that there was negligence on the part of the hospital and/or doctor/s, Maphumulo says that we may well see an influx of claims laid by the infected patients.
Read original story on lowvelder.co.za