It is a well-known fact that South Africa is besieged with the big and continuously growing challenge of medical negligence and other personal injury claims. The country is however not alone in battling with this challenge, many other countries such as Australia, United Kingdom and the United States of America, amongst others, are also seized with same. Week after week the South African public reads articles and watches TV shows about cases of medical negligence, challenges regarding payment of settlements by the Department of Health, obstetricians abandoning the service of delivering babies for fear of being sued, and general mistrust in the public healthcare system. The claims per province as published in the October 2016 medico legal declaration by the Department of Health are startling. There are several efforts made by the Minister including the formation of the Ministerial Advisory Committee in 2016 that seeks to address improved quality of healthcare, patient safety and medical accountability and reduction in medico legal litigation. As established consultants in the personal injury field SIMI Healthcare Solutions and SHA Inc believe that this matter needs serious and committed cross industry engagement. Such engagement would be done with a view to lift to the fore some of the critical variables that influence the direction, outcomes and consequences of litigation of personal injury cases. They believe that it is high time that these personal injury litigation issues are closely scrutinized and discussed so that solutions are found. The importance of a symposium of this nature cannot be overemphasized. As Andiswa Gowa states, “In order for us to see a change in how personal injury claims are resolved, whether arising from Road Accidents or Medical negligence, there is a need to think beyond the established way of resolving these cases and find creative solutions. We firmly believe that such creative solutions are born out of a deep engagement and …
Personal injury claims: The big questions
It is a well-known fact that South Africa is besieged with the big and continuously growing challenge of medical negligence and other personal injury claims. The country is however not alone in battling with this challenge, many other countries such as Australia, United Kingdom and the United States of America, amongst others, are also seized with same. Week after week the South African public reads articles and watches TV shows about cases of medical negligence, challenges regarding payment of settlements by the Department of Health, obstetricians abandoning the service of delivering babies for fear of being sued, and general mistrust in the public healthcare system. The claims per province as published in the October 2016 medico legal declaration by the Department of Health are startling. There are several efforts made by the Minister including the formation of the Ministerial Advisory Committee in 2016 that seeks to address improved quality of healthcare, patient safety and medical accountability and reduction in medico legal litigation. As established consultants in the personal injury field SIMI Healthcare Solutions and SHA Inc believe that this matter needs serious and committed cross industry engagement. Such engagement would be done with a view to lift to the fore some of the critical variables that influence the direction, outcomes and consequences of litigation of personal injury cases. They believe that it is high time that these personal injury litigation issues are closely scrutinized and discussed so that solutions are found. The importance of a symposium of this nature cannot be overemphasized. As Andiswa Gowa states, “In order for us to see a change in how personal injury claims are resolved, whether arising from Road Accidents or Medical negligence, there is a need to think beyond the established way of resolving these cases and find creative solutions. We firmly believe that such creative solutions are born out of a deep engagement and …