Negligence cases cost Gauteng health department more than R1bn in two years
The Gauteng health department has coughed up more than R1bn in negligence cases involving 35 public health institutions in two years, the DA’s provincial spokesperson on health, Jack Bloom, said on Tuesday. The province’s health budget grew from R37.6bn in 2016 to R40.2bn in 2017 but the health department had not budgeted for negligence costs. Since 2015, the department had paid out R1,017,278,937 in 185 legal cases of disease and death caused by negligence, across the province. Bloom said there were far too many cases happening all the time, and that no disciplinary action had been taken against any of the staff involved. In 2016, the health department’s legal fees amounted to R569m, and legal claims have been piling up since 2009. As a result, legal fees have taken up the bulk of the department’s budget, even into the new financial year, according to Bloom. About 50 of the total cases were related to cerebral palsy and brain damage at birth, which cost R769m. The others pertained ...
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