August
Dear Colleagues and Friends
We as EXCO of the SAMLS are still working behind the scenes to promote the interests of the Society and with this newsletter I would like to inform you about some activities we plan in the year ahead.
Firstly we as Executive Committee have with pleasure to announce that the October 2005 seminar will be very interesting and of great importance, not only for our legal brothers and sisters, but for our medical members as well. The details are as follows:
DATE: Saturday 15 October 2005
PLACE: Board Room of Rooth and Wessels, Brooklyn, Pretoria
TIME: 09:00 – 13:00
SUBJECT: Quantification of Damages
A diversity of speakers are being approached, like an actuary, a lawyer, a medical specialist and a representative of the Medical Protection Society. This exciting line-up of speakers will surely clarify aspects of the subject, especially if we keep in mind what happened in Cape Town, where representatives of the M.P.S. had a conference regarding some aspects of the same matter and rang the alarm bells regarding the astronomical costs becoming involved in this. The direct impact on MPS membership fees was one of the major consequences discussed.
As Executive committee we eagerly looking forward to this seminar and are quite sure the interest it will invoke from both the legal and medical fraternity. More specific details about the speakers will be announced at a later stage.
As EXCO we also deemed it appropriate to convene an AGM on Saturday 26 November 2005. As a Section 21 Company we need to discuss certain matters and make some important decisions. We most likely will have a respectable speaker that day to make it more enjoyable. We had in mind to organise this AGM at a convenient place next to Johannesburg International Airport in order to accommodate our members that come from far. We will make sure that there are hotel facilities for members who wish to stay over for the night, as we have planned a dinner after the AGM and some social activities.
Please diarise these two important dates namely 15 October 2005 and 26 November 2005 (both Saturdays) and make sure of your appreciated presence at these meetings.
Our website is still regarded as our communal centre point, as it not only reflects what we are and what we are about, but it is also regularly updated with important information and links to other websites. The latest addition to our website is about “Informed Consent”, a respectable essay from the pen of our honourable member, Prof Pieter Carstens, head of the Medical Law Department at the University of Pretoria. It really is an update about this important subject and surely worthwhile to take the effort to read.
Informed consent especially in hospital settings as well as an important matter between doctor and patient has still not been clarified in all aspects. Our honourable secretary, Dr. Dave Barnes is at this moment in discussion with Netcare’s Risk Management and Netcare’s medical manager Prof. Deon du Plessis. Prof Strauss, our honourable member of our Society, took the effect to compose a consent form for doctors to use with their patients, but the matter is still under discussion regarding implications for daily use. We will keep you informed, but can assure you of our efforts to finalise this.
On a nationwide scale we would like to expand the activities of our Society, at first to big cities like Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein. We have identified contact persons in those cities who are more than willing to get involved. We as Executive Committee plan to get in motion the beginning of next year, after proper correspondence and with the seminar of October 2005 as a structure to start other SAMLS centres. Although we had dreams about this years ago, we really think that the opportunities are presenting themselves now to take action. Exciting stuff, this new expansion policy!
Finally I would like to encourage members to stay involved with our Society. Without you we are nothing and it is really the participation and the enthusiasm that brought us where we are now.
Please pay your annual subscription fees. Letters have already been sent out regarding these fees. The money will be used wisely and mainly to organise meaningful seminars in order to continually educate you as a member. To be updated and to be connected to the right people in the medico-legal field is surely worth your annual subscription, which by the way, stayed the same the last few years at R 750,00. Thank you to all how have already paid their fees.
Please inform us through our e-mail contact, or by telephonic contact of interesting happenings or facts and let us together build this Society to a meaningful force on the Medico-legal scene.
Best wishes
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 – Advisor
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