Medical Negligence - Do You Know Your Rights?
Medical negligence is a topic that not a lot of South Africans know about and not knowing can cause you a great deal of trouble.
In South Africa, as in many other countries you have the right to sue your doctor if you feel that he has acted negligently in any way when he treated you. Doctors and hospitals are aware that this could happen and as a result most of them have medical negligence insurance also called Professional Indemnity Insurance. The good news for you if a doctor has that type of insurance is that the chances of recovering from him or her are higher than from a doctor without such insurance. The reason for this is simply that when there is doubt as to whether the doctor was negligent, the insurance company would rather try and settle with you than going through an expensive trial, where they may lose. If they lose they will then be forced to pay your claim in any event as well as the legal costs, which could add up quite substantially in this type of trial.
Successfully suing your doctor of hospital is not that easy however. Many doctors and hospitals make patients sign indemnity forms before they operate on them or even admit them to hospital. These indemnity forms basically indemnifies the hospital against any negligence on the part of the doctor or hospital. In a landmark case between one such a claimant and one of the hospitals in the former Afrox Healthcare group, Afrox healthcare were able to successfully rely on such an indemnity that went so far as to even exclude gross negligence. It is therefore not that easy to win a case of medical negligence.
What further complicates the matter is whom to sue. If you are admitted to hospital, you enter into a contract with the hospital. Some doctors work for hospitals and would be included in the contract with the hospital, but some doctors work privately and only in a certain hospital. Your contract with that doctor is something separate from the contract with the hospital. After all this you still need to find out who the negligent party was, in other words was it the doctor or the hospital.
All of this may seem very complicated and it may even make it seem like a lost cause to successfully sue a doctor or a hospital, but believe it or not, cases like that are won on a daily basis by the people suing the hospital. It is however not that easy and it would be advisable to approach attorneys that specialise in this discipline of the law.
Fortunately Naudés Attorneys is one such firm. Having dealt with and represented many insurance companies that deal with Professional Indemnity claims and also having dealt with clients on the other side of the scope our experts know what to expect and how to deal with such matters on an efficient, professional basis. It is for this reason that Naudés Attorneys should be your first choice when it comes to medical negligence claims. Click on the Contact Us link on this page and we will assist you with your medical negligence claim.
Medical negligence is a topic that not a lot of South Africans know about and not knowing can cause you a great deal of trouble.
In South Africa, as in many other countries you have the right to sue your doctor if you feel that he has acted negligently in any way when he treated you. Doctors and hospitals are aware that this could happen and as a result most of them have medical negligence insurance also called Professional Indemnity Insurance. The good news for you if a doctor has that type of insurance is that the chances of recovering from him or her are higher than from a doctor without such insurance. The reason for this is simply that when there is doubt as to whether the doctor was negligent, the insurance company would rather try and settle with you than going through an expensive trial, where they may lose. If they lose they will then be forced to pay your claim in any event as well as the legal costs, which could add up quite substantially in this type of trial.
Successfully suing your doctor of hospital is not that easy however. Many doctors and hospitals make patients sign indemnity forms before they operate on them or even admit them to hospital. These indemnity forms basically indemnifies the hospital against any negligence on the part of the doctor or hospital. In a landmark case between one such a claimant and one of the hospitals in the former Afrox Healthcare group, Afrox healthcare were able to successfully rely on such an indemnity that went so far as to even exclude gross negligence. It is therefore not that easy to win a case of medical negligence.
What further complicates the matter is whom to sue. If you are admitted to hospital, you enter into a contract with the hospital. Some doctors work for hospitals and would be included in the contract with the hospital, but some doctors work privately and only in a certain hospital. Your contract with that doctor is something separate from the contract with the hospital. After all this you still need to find out who the negligent party was, in other words was it the doctor or the hospital.
All of this may seem very complicated and it may even make it seem like a lost cause to successfully sue a doctor or a hospital, but believe it or not, cases like that are won on a daily basis by the people suing the hospital. It is however not that easy and it would be advisable to approach attorneys that specialise in this discipline of the law.
Fortunately Naudés Attorneys is one such firm. Having dealt with and represented many insurance companies that deal with Professional Indemnity claims and also having dealt with clients on the other side of the scope our experts know what to expect and how to deal with such matters on an efficient, professional basis. It is for this reason that Naudés Attorneys should be your first choice when it comes to medical negligence claims. Click on the Contact Us link on this page and we will assist you with your medical negligence claim.