Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has proposed that Parliament establish a panel of experts to adjudicate sky-rocketing medico-legal claims.
The minister also revealed that his department has discovered that lawyers who used to submit fraudulent claims for Road Accident Fund are the ones that have now shifted to the healthcare sector.
On Wednesday, Motsoaledi briefed three parliamentary committees outlined key challenges facing his department, including medico-legal claims.
He said following the Road Accident Fund strengthening its processes, the department of health noticed an explosion of medico-legal claims.
“Something is happening at RAF that seems to be disturbing the pattern which they were used to. We noticed an explosion of litigations that appeared on the scene round about 2015. An explosion means, all of a sudden, you see litigations left right and centre, where as we have been knowing that litigations appear in the healthcare system.
“These litigations were directed at the health institutions, as well as individual medical practitioners, in both public and private healthcare. This to us was worrying, because the explosion seemed to coincide with the RAF strengthening its systems,“ he said.
Last month, during a joint media briefing with the Special Investigative Unit, the minister revealed that from the 2020/21 to 2022/23 the RAF, through its internal Forensic Investigation Department, successfully stopped fraudulent claims to the value of R2,6 billion.
Last week, the SIU also told Parliament medical claims could cost the State as much as R4 billion and recommended an overhaul of the process.
As a way to counter fraudulent claims, Motsoaledi requested the support of Parliament to support mediation as a means to settle medico-legal claims instead of the courts.
He said the current rate at which claims are being lodged against the State, the SIU will be probing dodgy claims for the next 20 years.
During last months briefing the damning and ongoing investigation by the SIU has revealed that some legal practitioners have been targeting provincial Departments of Health – at times with the help of health practitioners working for the State.
The Star