A SHARP patient has helped the department of health arrest fraudsters who target badly injured crash victims and use them as cash cows.
The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital patient was called by a crook who claimed to work for lawyers from the Road Accident Fund. He said he wanted to help the patient claim from their fund.
The surprised patient wanted to know how the conman got hold of his information, as the file was supposed to be with the hospital.
The patient then alerted the hospital officials about the tsotsi and demanded to know how and why his file was in the hands of a stranger who does not work for the hospital.
Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu said the fraudster was tracked down and arrested.
He then took the cops to his handlers and they are both out on bail.
Mahlangu said: “We are grateful to this patient for helping us to open our eyes to more of these fraud cases.
“We are going to take swift action against our staff.
“We want to know how the file ended up outside the hospital with the conman.
“At the moment we have about six or seven motor vehicle accident files missing.
“So we are going to close that filing office while we conduct our investigations.
“We must continue to be vigilant.”
Mahlangu, who addressed the media yesterday at the hospital in Soweto, said they will follow proper procedures when they deal with their workers.
“There is a possibility that some doctors are involved,” she added.
The MEC said they will also ask security guards how the staff managed to leave the premises with the files while they were on duty.
“From now on, all cars going out of here have to be searched properly. I don’t know how big this operation is, but we know there are lawyers involved.”
She added that the people, who are probably part of a syndicate, choose their targets carefully.
“They target the most traumatised and badly injured patients.”
