The Gauteng Health Department has lost a case in which it asked to pay medical negligence awards in portions rather than as a lump sum, because the department failed to bring any evidence to the Constitutional Court as to why the court should change the law to allow this. Instead of paying R23m owed to a woman, who can only be referred to as DZ‚ for the medical care of her brain-damaged son‚ the department argued in the High‚ Supreme and Constitutional Courts that negligence law needs to be changed. It wants to pay for medical expenses monthly instead of as a once-off. DZ’s baby was born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy in 2008 because she didn’t get a caesarean section at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in time to prevent brain damage. The case highlighted the growing burden of medical negligence pay-outs and that provincial health departments feel they are paying so much to certain individuals damaged by their poor care they may not have enough money left to run the provincial hea...
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