Medical scheme Discovery Health is investigating claims made by fraud convict Schabir Shaik for his 76-day stay at a Durban hospital, according to the Sunday Times.
”It is being investigated, and if the claims are clinically appropriate, then we will pay in terms of the rules of the scheme. If claims are found to be clinically inappropriate, then we won’t pay. Some claims have been discharged,” Discovery marketing officer Hylton Kallner said.
The scheme has blocked any further payment until it has completed its investigation into the authenticity of Shaik’s condition, the report said.
Shaik, a dependent on his wife Zuleika’s Discovery medical scheme, was admitted to a private hospital, St Augustine’s, where the cost of his bed alone totals more than R150 000.
His admission into hospital, 16 days after his prison term started, sparked an outcry from medical experts and the public.
Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour has ordered a medical specialist to ascertain whether Shaik’s hospital stay is absolutely necessary, the Daily News reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper quoted Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni as saying that the medical examination would be conducted to obtain a ”second opinion” on the state of Shaik’s health.
Media reports speculated last month that Shaik had spent more than R500 000 on his stay at the Durban hospital. A private room at the hospital costs R2 300 a day.
Shaik was convicted in July 2005 on two counts of corruption and one count of fraud by Justice Hilary Squires in the Durban High Court. The Supreme Court of Appeal last year upheld Squires’s judgement and Shaik reported to Durban’s Westville Prison on November 9.
He was transferred to Empangeni’s Qalakabusha Prison on the same day, and on November 24 he was admitted to St Augustine’s Hospital’s renal transplant unit in Durban.
Shaik apparently suffers from unstable blood pressure and hypertension. His family said he suffered a mild stroke shortly after he was admitted to St Augustine’s.
Despite reservations expressed by medical experts on the length of Shaik’s stay in hospital, his brother Mo said ”a stroke or cardiac collapse is almost imminent”. — Sapa