Take action against negligent health personnel

Finding yourself in need of medical care is stressful enough without having to worry about the quality of healthcare you will receive. Yet medicine shortages and indifferent attitudes from healthcare workers at government medical facilities are issues many patients have to deal with.

The Daily Dispatch has written a prodigious number of articles and editorial opinions exposing the critical state of affairs at the provincial department of health, which faces billions of rands in medico-legal claims. This is not new, in fact it has been repeated so many times over the past few months and even years it would be unsurprising if the public became numb to it.

The numbers are staggering and growing each year. However, put aside the billions and focus on the people whose lives have been fundamentally changed by either sheer incompetence or intentional disregard of responsibilities. The numbers are more than just digits on the books. Some of them tell the stories of expectant mothers who entered maternity wards, excited at the prospect of cradling their newborn babies, only to leave with infants that would require lifelong care due to the negligence of hospital staff.

A young Eastern Cape mother is one of a string of women who have taken on the department in a civil negligence claim. The woman, now 22, is claiming R34m in damages. She was only 15  when her baby suffered severe brain damage during the birthing process. Her now seven-year-old suffers from a number of medical conditions including cerebral palsy, impaired vision and hearing, mental retardation, epilepsy and autism.

The woman claims that hospital staff ignored her concerns and requests for a C-section, did not respond to the difficult labour for 24 hours and did not monitor the wellbeing of the foetus. The matter is yet to be settled in court but it is probably one of the biggest — if not the biggest — medicolegal claim filed against the department.

This woman's story is not the first of its kind; nor will it be the last. A question many ask is: what happens to those healthcare workers who are accused of failing to carry out their duties to the patients under their care?

If the department does not tackle this problem at it roots, it will fester. There must be consequences for healthcare workers who fail patients when they are at their most vulnerable.