LETTER: Capping claims against health department only treats symptoms
Those who have been betrayed by the department’s incompetencies should be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering they endure
The headline to your editorial on January 30, “Staunch the flow of negligence”, is spot on. Regrettably it is not sufficiently well supported in the text of the piece. True, there are a couple of paragraphs right in the middle that bemoan the general state of our healthcare industry, but the real issues have notbeen clearly highlighted. Our healthcare industry is very unhealthy. In legislating to cap the obligations of the health department and the amount of damages to be paid to successful litigants, the justice department is doing no more than treat the symptoms that reveal the problem, rather than taking steps to eliminate the cause. Can it be regarded as other than fair that those who have been betrayed by the incompetencies of the health department should be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering that they have had to and will continue to endure? Another card that is being overplayed is the total amount of the claims that the department is facing. It is seldom that...
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