Where a hospital had inadequate surgical-sterilisation procedures affecting thousands of patients, a US Court of Appeals interpreted the hospital’s medical malpractice excess of loss policies, which covered medical incidents in furnishing services to any one patient, as indemnifying per patient, and not one claim for all patients harmed by single cause.
After notification by a
This blog is co-authored by Mishka Maharaj, a candidate attorney.
The importance of appointing appropriate medical experts to provide evidence in medical malpractice disputes was highlighted in this April 2025 High Court judgment.
A patient claimed damages from an orthopaedic surgeon arising from the surgeon advocating for and performing a surgical procedure to his right
A claim of negligent credentialing necessitates evidence that the hospital has breached its “independent duty to select and retain competent independent physicians seeking staff privileges”;
The hospital will be “responsible for the negligence of an independent physician when it has failed to exercise due care in the selection and retention of that
Chapter III of the Prescription Act, 1969 deals with the extinction of debts by prescription.
But how does this relate to personal injury cases?
Most claims for damages prescribe in three years, but prescription does not run against minors (people under the age of 18), those with severe mental and intellectual disabilities, or those
The problem facing departments of health around the country is how to improve service delivery to the public and the quality of medical care provided to patients and so significantly reduce the number and quantum of medico-legal claims. Instead of funding healthcare programmes and facilities, a large portion of the annual budgets is allocated to
On 15 January 2021 the Supreme Court of Appeal handed down a judgment which pronounced on the jurisdiction of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as a medical malpractice watchdog and the primary guardian of morals of the health profession. The judgment confirmed that the HPCSA’s jurisdiction is not limited to the conduct
The Eastern Cape MEC for Health was held vicariously liable for the negligent conduct of provincial hospital nursing staff in failing to take the necessary steps to ensure that a patient’s wound was properly assessed and cleaned and that all debris, specifically a large shard of glass, had been removed. The patient’s wound became infected
The case of Felicia Meyers v MEC, Department of Health, Eastern Cape deals with the evidence required to give rise to an inference of negligence on the part of an operating surgeon as to whether the injury caused in the course of the operation resulted from negligence (the failure to apply the professional skill and
The claimant, suing the UK National Health Service, had a medical history of having undergone two caesarean sections and a tear to her womb. Her fourth pregnancy was therefore regarded as ‘high risk’ and her treatment plan provided for an elective caesarean section. She brought a claim against the hospital on the grounds of alleged
In December 2019, the Durban High Court rejected expert evidence attempting to introduce a third type of hypoxic ischemic injury as the basis for a damages claim by a child born with cerebral palsy.
A hypoxic ischemic event is caused by a lack of oxygen or a lack of blood flow in the brain which