29 Jun 2022

At one point or another, all medical experts will face a malpractice suit.

This is a situation where a patient or relatives allege professional negligence resulting in injury (including death) and demand compensation against a health practitioner or health service provider.

Of recent, the Ministry of Health has been inundated with such cases, minister responsible, Dr Edwin Dikoloti said at the ministry’s summit held in Palapye on Tuesday.

So big was the problem that over the last six years the ministry had been slapped with claims amounting to more than P600 million.

It was time something was done, he said. However, he warned it would not be an easy fix.

“On first glance it may appear that [it is] an issue of negligence, [which] may mean bringing to book all those accused... so that they may never repeat it.”

However, on closer examination, the issue was more complex than anyone may have initially thought “because it involves the need to respect individual rights and preserving lives of both the individual and the public,” he said.

The sad reality was that in health care, there were no second chances.   The one mistake a healthcare practitioner made could lead to litigation, resulting in a huge payout to the complainant or even jail term for the practitioner.

Now, the country had a real problem coming: its healthcare workers may opt to practice defensive medicine, said Dr Dikoloti.

That was a situation where the healthcare provider became overly concerned with possible litigation and adopted unnecessary over-diagnostic approaches.

This was completely unnecessary as it was clear that in many of the cases that the ministry lost, it was not because anyone had been negligent as alleged, but for failure to provide adequate evidence to support their case.

The minister therefore, called upon all to introspect and chart a new chapter in medical practice for the country, identify gaps that needed to be closed as well as shed off obsolete practices. BOPA