May
Dear Colleagues and Friends
We are looking back at a very useful and successful seminar on 11 May 2002 about Third Party Matters. Again a well-meant thanks for everybody who contributed, especially the legal representatives of Sanlam, Mutual and Federal and Liberty. One of the senior orthopaedic surgeons from Johannesburg present at the meeting made a comment in a specially directed letter to me as President that Ahis observation was that this was going to be an extremely beneficial meeting place, because when one listens to speakers from each representative group, that is doctors, the lawyers and the insurers, one notices a certain amount of suspicion but non the less a spirit of trying to get away from that feeling, which will obviously be for the benefit of the patient and/or client.@
We already look forward to the second seminar of this year on 05 OCTOBER 2002. The subject will be EXPERT WITNESS, EXPERT OPINION. Several senior law representatives will be approached for a contribution, as well as two senior medical specialist members of our society. This seminar promises to be very interesting to say the least. For the continued medico legal education of lawyers and doctors it is a necessity. More details will follow. PLEASE MAKE A DATE AND DIARISE THIS DATE OF 5 OCTOBER 2002 carefully.
Several interesting and exciting developments took place at and after the seminar on 11 May 2002, the first one being the allocation of 4 CPD points for our medical members. A CPD certificate will be sent to you in due time. The second and important news is the fact that 12 new members could be enrolled as members of our Society, which brings the membership count to more than 40 members, of which 3/4 are medically and 1/4 legally qualified. Please look at our website www.samls.co.za. for details. Although we are very proud of this growth figure, we are not satisfied as many more medical and legal practitioners as well as academics qualify to strengthen our ranks. Please advertise our honourable society by word of mouth and encourage colleagues and friends to become members. New members will be sent a terrific membership certificate of which we can be proud of. A detailed description of our specially designed logo will follow in one of the next newsletters.
Approval of the HPCSA will be sought to disclose on letterheads the membership of the SAMLS. That would indeed be a point of recognition for our Society and our members.
At the seminar of 11 May 2002 and at the Exco Meeting thereafter, upgrading of our website was discussed. We will start with more links to other medico legal societies all over the world. We will start a special page as well (and hopefully more pages in the future) with a reference bibliography about specific medico legal subjects. Everybody is encouraged to contribute here. Please keep it short and sweet, but non the less sufficient. I see a great potential for this consensus bibliography not only as a matter of reference, but also as a matter of gathering knowledge for people all over the country.
We will try to get links and communications with medico legal journals, as well as Robert Koch's newsletter. Please get involved and advise us with your own knowledge of improvements to be made. E-mail us at our e-mail address as publicised.
One of the other very positive results of our meetings was the conclusion that a committee should be nominated to look at medico legal reports. The format will be discussed and guide lines will hopefully follow, but also the remuneration will be looked at in detail. On account of an opinion poll of our members, the following persons will serve on this committee:
Mr J.H van Rooyen, attorney as a legal representative
Dr. G Marus; ┐
Dr. D.I. Barnes; ┤
Dr. A.H. van den Bout; ┤ as medical representatives
Dr. P.F.R.G.de Muelenaere; ┘
Mr J Joubert of RAF; ┐
Mr C Miller; ┘ as cost consultants
Everyone of this committee will be asked to make a substantial contribution about how a medico legal report should look and how much it should cost. Every member of our society for that matter is asked to make contributions and share your thoughts on e-mail. We will gladly integrate all knowledge and experience expressed. As soon as this project has been finalised, the results will be published on our website and should serve as guidelines for all parties involved.
The next big step for our Society will be to appoint an ethical committee to formulate a code of conduct and ethical behaviour. Please start thinking about that subject in the meantime.
Some practical news is that our registration as an Article 21 company is still in progress and that Moores Rowland Auditors will be approached to audit our financial statements. At the moment our bank matters are in good shape, but not all members have paid up their membership fees yet. Our treasurer, Dr. Hennie Pienaar will approach you about that matter, but please anticipate and pay before he contacts you.
Some good news is that we are looking to design our own SAMLS ties and scarfs. For that we will approach only the best in the business. Ever better news is that these costs will probably be funded by our membership fees and seminar attendance fees!
The next newsletter of June will contain some legal information and hopefully we will start with some recent case reviews about medico legal matters. For that we will knock on the door of some of our big brothers to help us.
I hopefully brought you up to date with some important and interesting pieces of information. Please do not hesitate and do not let the Exco down - please contribute as we have asked.
Your Sincerely
DR ANTON H VAN DEN BOUT
PRESIDENT SAMLS
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