ConCourt set aside High Court medical negligence order
PARKTOWN - Since a patient first sued the Department of Health in 2012, she still has to deal with the effects of medical negligence, the DA said.
The Constitutional Court recently set aside a previous order of the Johannesburg High Court that had directed three Gauteng Department of Health officials to pay legal costs of a medical negligence case.
According to Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, Vuyusile Lushaba, a KwaZulu-Natal resident, sued the department for more than R10 million because her son Menzi was born with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy after delayed treatment at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
“Her son can neither sit nor walk, and Lushaba sued the MEC for Health in 2012,” he said.
The matter appeared in the High Court where the judge ruled against the department.
“Acting-Justice Ronée Robinson ruled against the department in the negligence matter in September 2014. Meanwhile, Lushaba was suffering through all these delays, carrying her 14-year-old son on her back because she had no money for a wheelchair,” Bloom said.
Bloom explained that the Constitutional Court judgement indicated that the High Court could not punish the three officials without giving them a hearing and opportunity to make representations. He said Judge Robinson had sought to hold the MEC and officials personally responsible to pay punitive court costs from their own pockets, but after submissions by the MEC and three officials, she let the MEC off the hook and ordered the officials to pay 50 percent of Lushaba’s litigation costs on a punitive scale.
Justice Reichlin Ramsamy who still represents Vuyusile Lushaba said he thought the court missed an opportunity to “chastise the state who defends hopeless cases all at the expense of the tax payer and to the detriment of the victims who suffered damages as result of state employees’ negligence”.
Lushaba and Ramsamy plan to go back to court to recover general damages for pain and suffering and loss of earnings.
Bloom said he thought the latest ConCourt ruling is correct in term of the South African Constitution but agreed with the High Court criticism that taxpayers were needlessly funding an expensive legal defense of clear-cut medical negligence.
“I hope that the department speeds up the amicable settlement of medical negligence claims that have seen court-ordered damage awards of more than R 100 million every year for the past few years,” Bloom said.
Steve Mabona, spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Health said the department is still studying the judgement and will “pronounce in due course”.
Details: Gauteng Department of Health, 011 355 3503/3000.
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