Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced a two-week amnesty period in which lawyers can withdraw fraudulent medical negligence claims without fear of prosecution.
This forms part of a nationwide effort to stop dodgy practitioners milking the state and patients of billions of rand.
The Treasury has expressed growing concern in recent years over the budget implications of ballooning medical negligence payouts to successful claimants, as they are crowding out spending on personnel and vital healthcare services.
Provinces faced contingent liabilities for medico-legal claims in excess of R68bn in 2022/2023, equivalent to 75% of the health budget for that year, and paid out R1.45bn to successful claimants, according to the latest publicly available figures.
On Saturday, the minister announced that a nationwide Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into medico-legal claims that began in 2022 had already saved the state more than R3.1bn, with the figure expected to rise.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. These savings are going to increase dramatically as investigations continue,” he said.
Motsoaledi appealed to attorneys who had filed fraudulent medical negligence claims to take advantage of the government’s offer of amnesty.
“If you are a lawyer out there and have submitted a fraudulent claim, please come and withdraw it. We promise you publicly nothing will happen. We are giving you two weeks. The offer lapses after that, and the SIU will strike,” he said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a proclamation in 2022 authorising the SIU to investigate allegations of corruption, fraud and maladministration related to medico-legal claims within the public health sector. It was triggered after the SIU uncovered extensive medico-legal fraud in Eastern Cape and Gauteng, centred on claims for cerebral palsy.
Many of the claims in Eastern Cape had been lodged by Johannesburg-based law firm Nonxuba Attorneys, which is already facing criminal charges.
The SIU’s subsequent work had found further evidence of alleged crimes committed by other law firms, but they could not be identified because they had not yet been charged, the minister said.
The SIU had identified attorneys who had filed fraudulent claims without the knowledge of the patients concerned, failed to pay over multimillion-rand settlements to victims of medical negligence and lodged claims on behalf of people who had already died, he said.
The SIU had launched investigations into 2,830 claims for medical negligence valued at R33.13bn that were lodged in five years to 2020/2021, Motsoaledi said. It had finalised 360 investigations into claims totalling R19bn, and had already saved money because some lawyers had withdrawn claims when they faced scrutiny from the SIU, he said.
An undisclosed number of attorneys have been referred to the National Prosecuting Agency for consideration of criminal charges related to fraud, theft and embezzlement of trust funds. They have also been referred to the Legal Practice Council for violation of the code of conduct for legal practitioners.
The Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund had been asked to consider reimbursing claimants whose funds were embezzled by attorneys, the minister said.
Sketching the work conducted by the SIU, Motsoaledi said the agency had found numerous cases in the Eastern Cape where the living conditions of successful medical negligence claimants was “appalling” despite receiving large settlements.
“Many of these claimants are unemployed and rely on social grants ... despite millions having been deposited into their lawyers’ accounts.”
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