Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice Medical Malpractice
Medical Malpractice
With the ever increasing  hype surrounding lawsuits against medical practitioners in South Africa, this is no longer restricted to the soap operas from day time television made in sunny L.A., but has become more commonly found here in South Africa.

Medical malpractice suits against plastic surgeons were the primary leading news items which grabbed the headlines; more recently, obstetrics and gynaecology suits have featured more prominently in the local media and, as a result, become more lucrative areas of litigation. For example, the Medical Protection Society recently settled a single Gynaecology claim, worth R27 million.

While a number of high profile settlements in favour of patients have established the trend in South Africa, it has been exacerbated by attorneys now actively pursuing medical negligence claims due to the high earning potential that they offer. 

With an 18% increase in the number of medical malpractice claims in excess of one million Rand over the last decade plus a 900% increase in medical malpractice claims over five million Rand one can certainly understand the rash of radio and TV advertisements calling on patients to seek legal assistance at the hint of malpractice.

The result of this legal onslaught is that the Medical Protection Society, which assists doctors with legal matters, has recently been swamped with a backlog of more than a 1000 complaints of negligence against South African medical practitioners.

Very few doctors have that type of money to pay out for malpractice claims whichis why it is so important to obtain insurance should this scenario ever crop up.

The Medical Protection Society of South Africa recommends that all medical practitioners take out medical malpractice insurance to cover any malpractice suit that might occur, making this an absolute necessity.

It is simply not worth the risk; Studying towards a medical degree for years on end; sacrificing time, money and every thing that presents an obstacle to obtaining your medical degree; to simply lose everything by not having the medical malpractice cover that will protect you against such eventualities occurring would be negligent. Humans make mistakes – but don’t make the mistake of not insuring against medical malpractice as this will be one mistake that could take away everything you have worked for. 

In today’s society it is important to ensure that you have the right cover protecting your practice from occurrences that could financially destroy you.
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