FIVE YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR A WOMAN WHO STOLE HER MOTHER’S PATIENT FILE
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On Friday,15 April 2022, the Department of Health in Limpopo welcomed the sentencing of a woman who stole her mother’s patient file at Tshilidzini Hospital.
This comes after the woman and her mother were being treated for fractures they sustained during a motor vehicle acvident. The patient’s lawyer petitioned the hospital to produce the file of the patient or pay R90 000 for failure to do so.
Upon investigations the file was found to have been with the patient’s daughter who confessed to have been advised by the lawyer to keep it for the purposed of Road Accident Fund(RAF) claims.
Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba has commended the law enforcement agencies and the court for the successful sentencing. Ramathuba says she expect to see more convictions of this nature because the department has taken a hard-line approach on getting into the bottom of patient records suddenly disappearing in hospitals.
The Thohoyandou Magistrate’s court found the woman guilty and sentenced her to six months imprisonment suspended for five years.
