South Africa has well defined health care rights, which is world leading, but they are only good if they are enforced adequately in the industry. Many of these health care rights have been added to the new Constitution in 1994, any they are applicable to both the public and private health care sector. While South Africa has one of the best private health care industries in the world, our public health care sector is riddled with mismanagement, worker apathy and sometimes even downright corruption which affect the level of patient care they deliver.

At Adele van der Walt Attorneys we have dealt with hundreds of cases where patients have received care that is basically the direct opposite of what the Constitution prescribes. In many instances these transgressions result in the patient suffering life long damage or sometimes even death.

One of the health care rights you are entitled to is informed consent and this is also one of the rights people complain about the most. Informed consent means that you are fully informed about the status of your disease and what the most appropriate treatment will be. However, you have to give your consent for this treatment to be administered. In many cases a patient will receive treatment, be it a surgical procedure or medication, and they are not informed of the side effects of the treatment. For example, certain medicines can have a detrimental effect on the reproductive system, and the patient must be informed of this.

Take for example a medicine that is used to treat severe acne. This medicine works wonders for people suffering from severe acne, but should a female patient fall pregnant while taking this medicine, she may carry a deformed baby or even have a spontaneous abortion. If the patient isn’t informed of this and she falls pregnant, she will suffer further emotional scarring because of the unhealthy pregnancy.

If your health care rights have been affected, contact us and we will help you to get the justice you deserve.

For more information on this subject, please give us a call at 012 460 3668 (SA)
or e-mail us at linda@avdw.co.za