Medical Aid Halts Shaik Claims [Sunday Times, 2007-02-11]

Publication: Sunday Times Issued: Date: 2007-02-11 Reporter: Subashni Naidoo Reporter: Bongani Mthethwa

Medical Aid Halts Shaik Claims

Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2007-02-11
Reporter	Subashni Naidoo Bongani Mthethwa
Web Link	www.sundaytimes.co.za

Fraudster in hospital seven times longer than heart bypass patients

South Africa’s biggest medical scheme, Discovery Health, is investigating all claims made by convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik for his 76-day stay at a private hospital in Durban.

Shaik has avoided jail for three months after being admitted to St Augustine’s, where the cost of his bed alone currently totals more than R150 000.

The scheme has now blocked any further payment until it has completed its investigation into the authenticity of his condition.

Discovery’s chief marketing officer, Hylton Kallner, said yesterday: “It is being investigated and if the claims are clinically appropriate then we will pay in terms of the rules of the scheme. If claims are found not to be clinically appropriate then we won’t pay. Some claims have been discharged.”

In addition, the Department of Correctional Services has finally succumbed to public pressure and launched its own investigation into Shaik’s condition.

Spokesman Manelisi Wolela said Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour was planning an investigation. “I think it would help to clear up the question of his sickness. No judgment has been made that the claims are false.”

Shaik, who is a dependant on the medical scheme of his wife, Zuleika *1, was admitted to the hospital in November last year, after only 16 days in prison, sparking an outcry from prisoner rights organisations, medical experts and the public.

He was admitted by his physician, Dr AS Gaffoor, who said he suffered from high blood pressure and complained of chest pains in November.

In December, his cardiologist, Dr Faizel Tayob, said he was asked to do an angiogram on Shaik. The procedure shows whether there is a risk of a heart attack

“His blood pressure was sky-high and he had chest pains. There was a serious cardiac problem, which is under control. He had an angina attack,” Tayob said.

Cardiologists interviewed by the Sunday Times said a patient with Shaik’s symptoms should remain in hospital between two and 10 days.

Johannesburg-based Dr Hermann Wittmer said that in 20 years in practice he had not seen any heart patient stay in hospital for 76 days. “A heart bypass will take a maximum of 10 days’ recovery.

“Once the blood pressure is normalised, which usually takes between 24 and 48 hours, the patient is discharged.”

Despite doctors questioning the length of Shaik’s hospital stay, his brother Mo told the Sunday Times yesterday that “a stroke or cardiac collapse is almost imminent *2”.

Among the privileges Shaik enjoys in St Augustine’s are:

A R2000-a-day bed in an isolated private ward in the renal transplant section;
Three personal specialists, Gaffoor, Tayob and psychiatrist Dr AE Gangat *3, assigned at his request;
His medical file being kept under wraps, with access limited to his personal specialists;
At least two guards from Westville Prison around the clock, for whom he pays up to R200 an hour;
The freedom to move in and out of his ward, allegedly without the supervision of the guards;
A choice of three meals a day from the hospital kitchen, as opposed to prison-issue staples; and
Visits from family and friends more frequently than the allocation for newly sentenced prisoners.

With acknowledgements to Subashni Naidoo, Bongani Mthethwa and Sunday Times.

*1       A little pre-conviction financial engineering?

*2      Chippy might be getting a couple of murmurs of his own.

*3      Old mates from Greenwood Park?