Durban - Healthcare professionals and staff members at public hospitals and clinics need to demonstrate a respect for human rights, by giving the best possible treatment to patients.
According to Member of Provincial Legislature (MPL) Lusiwe Mhlongo, such a move would go a long way towards reducing the number of medico-legal claims against the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department. She expressed this view during the debate on the state of healthcare services in KZN on Tuesday.
The debate followed site visits conducted by MPLs at many of KZN’s healthcare facilities in recent weeks, especially those located in rural areas.
She noted how many facilities were battling when it came to delivering efficient healthcare, citing among others, lack of staff, medicines and equipment.
“Firstly, we have to improve the respect for human rights, and accountability to the users of health facilities and the public at large. Again, reduce the burden and risk of disease affecting the health of all South Africans. This will assist in reducing medico-legal claims,” said the MPL.
According to Ngubane, the medico-legal claims were leading to losses amounting to millions of rands in settlements, money which, she argued, could be channelled towards delivering better services.
She added that staff shortages leads to an increase in negligence and poor quality of healthcare delivered, which in turn leads to a rise in litigation.
“The health system is bleeding from these medical litigation claims, it’s unsustainable. It needs to follow the road accident fund guidelines, where all medico-legal claims must be done internally and not involve external lawyers,” Ngubane stressed.
The MPL also called for more funding to be availed to enable the department to appoint more staff.
“No health system can work without human resources; we have attrition of medical personnel to other countries even overseas due to lack of posts and funding within the public health system. They are the backbone, if we cannot ensure that we have available posts, funding and sustain quality education of the medical health personnel, the system is collapsing,” the MPL continued.
She pointed out that the challenge of accessing health care remained on the rise, especially in rural areas. Many of the public representatives noted during the recent visits that many of the rural facilities lacked health specialists, leading to many patients being transported to areas far away in order to access such help.