The South African Medico Legal Society

Dear Colleagues and Friends

It is seminar time again. This October event is of such importance that it should not be missed by anyone. The particulars of the seminar are as follows:

Date: 11 October 2003

Time: 09:00 – 13:00

Place: New offices of Rooth & Wessels Attorneys

Veale Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria

Subject: The Different Facets of Malpractice

We as EXCO were fortunate to have acquired learned and appropriate speakers. Not only do they represent both the medical and legal side of the fraternity, but they are recognised experts in their own fields. We are proud to present to you the following list of speakers:

Judge F.C. Kirk-Cohen

Prof P.A. Carstens, Head of Medical Law of the University of Pretoria

Adv E. Labuscagne, Member of the Bar, Pretoria

Mrs K Padyachee, Legal Department of the HPCSA

Dr D. Barnes, Orthopaedic Surgeon

Dr H. Edeling, Neurosurgeon

It is for sure something to look forward to and afterwards will be something to be remembered.

As Society we are very obliged to Rooth & Wessels Attorneys, one of the oldest and most renowned lawyer firms in the country, for their willingness to put at our disposal their offices. Our meeting will be held at their new and beautiful offices in Brooklyn. Easily accessible from Johannesburg and possibly an attractive venue for the legal profession to strengthen our forces and extend the scope of the South African Medico Legal Society. We are indebted to Rooth & Wessels as it saves us a considerable amount of money for the venue, money that could be spent more sensibly and worthwhile.

The entrance fees are as follows:-

Paid up members of SAMLS Free

Academics instate Health and Law R 375,00

Private practitioners R 425,00

At the general discussion after the seminar we as EXCO will make some proposals and expose some plans for next year. As Society we have an important role to play and more so as the Medico-Legal scene in our country develops. We want to make some proposals to the meeting of representation of the Society at different levels of structure where it will be of importance.

We want suggestions about the subject of the two seminars for 2004 and discuss again the importance of an Annual General Meeting in a relaxed atmosphere, like it was held this year.

We want to get final approval for the official point of view of the Society regarding Medico Legal Reports and the fee structure.

We want to get an ethical discussion going about the way Medico-Legal practice should be conducted and possibly put some guidelines down for proper conduct in our profession. We are here to stay and our impact will be more and more of importance for all the role players. We have a mission as spelt out in our Constitution.

The medical and legal fraternity should therefore unite their forces in one structure as our Society to regulate, continually educate and represent their members. Not only will the standard of practice be elevated to higher levels, but also will the general population of our country be provided with a reliable reference to reliable professionals.

As announced before, Prof Pieter Carstens, a honourable member of our Society, has started a column on our website, www.samls.co.za about what happens all over the world in our particular field of interest. The first edition really promises a lot to look forward to. We would like to thank Prof Carstens for his effort as it educates us in his subtle way of teaching.

News regarding the latest developments in Netherlands I will keep for the next newsletter. Dr. Dave Barnes, our secretary, will at the seminar of 11 October 2003 give a very interesting overview about European developments as he witnessed it at his Finnish Congress this year.

We will start on our website library references with all the lectures of our October seminar. We would like to encourage members in a specific field of Medico-Legal practice to supply us with the most important references about a certain subject. Put on our website it will be accessible throughout the country and could become the most important source of citations. All members are encouraged to cooperate and take the trouble to inform our offices of what they think the most important literature in that field is.

Lastly I want to encourage members of our Society to bring along interested colleagues to our important seminar as we are never satisfied with attendance figures and we always want more. As an old Chinese saying goes: the more the better.

See you on 11 October 2003 in Brooklyn.

Your president

DR & ADV ANTON H VAN DEN BOUT

EXCO MEMBERS:- Mr Albert Lamey - Vice President

Dr. Dave Barnes - Secretary

Dr. Henny Pienaar – Treasurer

Prof Pieter Carstens – Advisory Member