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Healthcare providers retrench, halt services as Compensation Fund payouts delayed

Some healthcare providers who work with the Compensation Fund have started to retrench staff while others have halted operations, following six months of not being able to log claims with the Fund, which is intended to compensate workers who have died or got hurt or sick at work.

Several individuals and associations representing allied healthcare workers, who provide support services like physiotherapy and occupational therapy, released a statement on Saturday saying that practices are closing down because the Department of Employment and Labour has not settled any Compensation Fund claims since October 2019.

"Practices have steadily been shutting their doors since October 2019, but the situation has become dire as of January 2020, when service providers who manage injury on duty claims on behalf of private practices started informing their clients that they were unable to settle claims," read the statement.

New system 'never worked'

Rogier van Bever Donker, President of the South Africa Society of Physiotherapists (SASP), said this started when the Department migrated to a new system that health practitioners should use to lodge Compensation Fund claims in mid-September.

"The new system has never worked. Employers aren’t able to register their workers who need compensation, and many of our members have not been able to put their claims through. There are a few practitioners who have retrenched people already," said Donker.

The association represents just under 5 000 of the 7 500 physiotherapists registered in the country, said Donker. He added that because there had been no communication at all from the labour department since the old system went offline in September, the association escalated the matter to the Health Ombud, which is looking into the matter. However, the new system remains ineffective.

The practitioners said the Compensation Fund, which is managed by the Department of Employment and Labour, pays out more than R5 billion to medical practitioners and allied healthcare workers every year as a result of South Africans sustaining injuries on duty.

The Fund’s 2018/19 annual performance plan shows that it spent R9.3 billion in the 2017/18 financial year on compensation-related claims, including medical benefits and rehabilitation as well as administration costs. It budgeted to spend R11.5 billion in the 2019/20 financial year, increasing to R12 billion the following year.

Moira Wilson, who has a physiotherapy practice at Netcare’s Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, said physiotherapists, private hospitals, pharmacies and x-ray establishments who initially carried on seeing Compensation Fund patients without getting payment were unable to carry the cost anymore and had started turning them away.

"We as service providers can’t carry over for six months because if you raise an invoice, you have to pay VAT, but how do you pay VAT from nothing? It’s been static for six months now," said Wilson, who is also the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases administrator for SASP.

She said injured workers weren’t even able to get medication, catheters or nappies from pharmacies for those who had spine injuries. Employers and some medical practitioners have been flooding their nearest Department of Employment and Labour offices to get help, she added.

Fin24 approached the Compensation Fund for comment and was promised a response. However, none was forthcoming by deadline. Should it be received, this story will be updated.

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