LCR 4802 MEDICAL LAW SUMMARY. THE BEST FOR EXAM. SUCCESS.

LCR 4802 MEDICAL LAW SUMMARY. THE BEST FOR EXAM. SUCCESS. CLS cc © Medical Law Summary - 2015 1 Critical Law Studies cc (c) THE SOUTH AFRICAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM In South Africa we distinguish between practitioners who are employed by the State and those who practice for their own account. Private practices and hospitals attend to those who can afford to pay for their services, by their own funds or their medical aid scheme. A patient, who seeks the services of a private practitioner, enters into a direct relationship with him and must remunerate him privately = FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM and the state isn’t a party to the agreement. BUT this contract is limited as the law puts certain limits on the contract between the doctor and the patient (e.g. where the patient assumes risk for negligent treatment). Thus we can’t be called a free enterprise system. Besides S27 of the Constitution – no one has an absolute right to health care. There is NO National Health care service in SA, but provision has been made for state and provincial hospitals and clinics. The National Health Act (S4(1)): empowers the minister of health to prescribe conditions, regarding which people are eligible for free health care services at a public health establishment. S4 (3): of the NHA: state clinics and health centers provided by the state must provide: q Pregnant and lactating woman and children under 6 who aren’t members of a medical aid with free health care q All people (except members of medical aid schemes) and their dependents and all people getting compensation for an occupational disease with free primary health care services q Woman, subject to the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act, with free terminations of pregnancy. The National Health Department hopes to make membership of medical aid schemes more affordable by introducing a National Health Insurance system. This will however, be expensive to implement. The NHIS is aimed at ensuring that all South Africans have access to health care. This system will be funded from the taxes paid by the higher income earners in society and administered by the public sector. CLS cc © Medical Law Summary - 2015 2 Critical Law Studies cc (c) THE CONTRACT BETWEEN DOCTOR AND PATIENT A patient in consulting a doctor enters into a contractual relationship with him. A doctor in private practice is a free agent or independent consultant and can accept or refuse patients as he chooses. The exception to this is S27, dire emergency. The contract entered into is in a tacit agreement where the doctor undertakes to diagnose and treat the patient in a normal way. Any unusual procedures must firstly be discussed with the patient. The undertaking of this agreement does not mean that the doctor will treat the patient personally. He can refer the patient to a specialist. By undertaking a case, a doctor does not guarantee that the patient will be cured. A medical practitioner can refuse to treat anyone who is physically or verbally abusive subject to section 27. Once a treatment has commenced a doctor may not simply abandon the patient. Medical fees Medical fees must be reasonable. The doctor must furnish the patient with a detailed account within a reasonable period even where an account was rendered to a medical scheme. MUTUAL CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN DOCTORS – HOW DOCTORS PRACTICE TOGETHER Partnership Partners share profits and losses. Advantage is that if a partner falls ill he does not lose his income because he continues to share in the income generated by the other partners. Disadvantages are that relations may become strained if one of the partners does not pull his weight and the insolvency of one of the partners may also create problems. Associate Practice An agreement by which facilities are shared (an alternative). Doctors are not sharing in both profit and loss but each practices for his own profit, yet they share certain facilities, e.g. rooms, equipment etc. Doctors in “association” are mutually available for each other’s patients.