South Africa is one of the countries with the most extensive health laws available to regulate the medical industry and rights of the patient. Our health laws for instance, protect HIV infected workers against discrimination on the grounds of their HIV status.

An employer cannot force a worker to take an HIV/AIDS test and may also not dismiss an employee because of their HIV status. The employee must instead be transferred to a low risk department and receive the same rights as other healthy workers at the company. Our health laws also protect patients against disclosure of their HIV status to third parties without written consent from the patient.

It is not only in the area of discrimination or protection of medical information, where we have an advantage. Also when it comes to wrong diagnosis by a doctor, wrong medication provided or failure to follow the proper procedures to find out what is wrong, claims can be lodged.

Unfortunately many patients are not aware of their rights and more often than not cases go unnoticed. A doctor may for instance, turn a baby away for treatment because the workload is already too heavy. While at home or on the road to another medical facility the mother finds that her baby has died. This is grounds for strong legal action.

Other instances may not be so severe, but the nurses at a hospital can provide a medication for which the patient is allergic. Since they have not consulted the patient’s chart where it stated that the patient is allergic to the medicine, the patient will have grounds for a compensation claim.

If you have been the victim of discrimination at work because of your HIV status, have been wrongly diagnosed, not treated when you were in need of medical treatment, and more, contact us today for assistance. We are well acquainted with the health laws of South Africa and will advice you on the process to be followed for claiming compensation.

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