Win for Chiropractors in South Africa

Judge dismisses RAF’s Chiropractor Defense

by: DrTirpak posted: August 10, 2012

The Western Cape (Southwestern province of South Africa) High Court this week dismissed an exception raised by the Road Accident Fund (RAF) in its defense of a claimant that suffered a spinal injury in a car accident. The fund is a social security safety fund in South Africa providing compulsory social insurance coverage to all users of South African roads.

 The RAF was trying to persuade the court unsuccessfully that a chiropractor is not a ‘medical practitioner’ within the meaning of section 24(2)(a) of the Road Accident Fund Act and that, as a result, her claim was not acceptable. Judge Binns-Ward said the purpose of section 24(2)(a) of the Road Accident Fund Act was clear, and was a matter on which there was no excuse for uncertainty or doubt by the fund.

 According to the report, the judge said in one case, a lower court Judge Craig Howie emphasized that it was the function of the fund is to investigate and settle compensation claims under the statute and to defend matters only ‘when litigation is responsibly contestable’.

He added the healthcare professional best qualified to give information on the nature of the injuries sustained and the treatment already given or to be expected, was the practitioner who had been involved in treating the claimant as a patient.

 The history of Chiropractic in South Africa has had many bumps along the road. The first chiropractors in South African date back to the 1920’s. By 1939 a national association was formed, South African Manipulative Practitioners Association. Unfortunately in 1971 a bill was passed in the South African parliament that closed the register to any new Chiropractors and Chiropractic students, stalling the growth of the profession. The same year all of the chiropractic organization merged forming the present day Chiropractic Association of South Africa CASA.

In the interim a few brave souls, known as 'ghosts' practiced outside the law. After much protect in 1981 the South African Medical and Dental held a hearing and voted 17 to 16 against the inclusion of Chiropractic. They rejected Chiropractic as being unscientific and having no place whatsoever within the realm of "medicine".

Not until 1985 was the practice of Chiropractic legal again when the Associated Health Professions Service Board was created by the Ministry of Health to regulate Chiropractic and other professions such as Homeopathy, Osteopathy, and Naturopathy. Currently the Country has two accredited Chiropractic Education programs: Durban Institute of Technology and University of Johannesburg .

Next year South Africe and the CASA have the privilege of hosting the World Federation of Chiropractic 12th Biennial Congress to be held at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban, South Africa, April 10-13, 2013

abc

Comment on Win for Chiropractors in South Africa

Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)