Juta MedicalBrief

Assisted dying and euthanasia laws and policies are gradually being reformed worldwide, and in South Africa, a key test on the right to die is moving forward with timelines set for the court hearing and more interest groups seeking to be admitted in the case, writes MedicalBrief. While applications to be admitted as amicus curiae (friends of the court) in DignitySA’s ‘medical assistance in dying’ case are still being submitted, the Gauteng High Court has set timelines for exchanging papers well into 2027, reports Netwerk24. At a case management meeting, the court decided to give all respondents until 30 April 2027...

Frontline staff from the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness are increasingly anxious about their safety and travelling into communities to provide essential services, after 20 hijackings involving government vehicles were reported over the past two financial years, reports the Cape Argus. Internal departmental records show that 12 hijackings were reported during the 2025/26 financial year, while another eight had been recorded during 2026/27 by 27 August. Khayelitsha was among the areas most affected, with five hijackings reported there in 2025/26 and three during the current financial year. The incidents come amid wider concern over attacks on frontline government workers, including...

There is still no completion date for Johannesburg’s new forensic pathology lab, which remains an empty shell while the current facility – the condemned Braamfontein/Hillbrow mortuary, where blood seeps on to floors and rats reportedly chew on corpses – has been “temporary” since 1999, reports News24. Eight missed deadlines, more than R700m already spent, and six years after it was first supposed to open, the city’s Forensic Pathology Services (FPS) lab at Helen Joseph Hospital is still unfinished, and the responsible department still cannot say when that will change. Meanwhile, staff at the Braamfontein FPS have worked in the condemned and...

An announced 2.88% increase in the single exit price (SEP) of medicines from 1 October will have a limited effect on patients but was crucial for sustaining medicine supply, says Pharmisa, while discussions between the government and industry continue over balancing patient access to treatment with the viability of the sector, reports Business Day. The adjustment, the second this year, applies to prices recorded on the official medicines database as at 30 September regardless of how they were calculated earlier in the 2026 pricing cycle. The increase follows a much smaller adjustment earlier this year. The pricing committee set the first...

Cash, properties, pensions and investments worth about R42.2m have been secured by the Special Investigating Unit after being linked to bribes allegedly paid by businessman Stefan Govindraju to Tembisa Hospital staff – in one instance millions  being deposited into the bank account of a nine-year-old girl, reports The Citizen. The bribes – thought to total R100m – are suspected to have clinched procurement deals worth around R600m. Govindraju was arrested in August and granted R200 000 bail. The latest action comes after the SIU was granted a preservation order by the Special Tribunal last month regarding the hospital’s operational manager Zacharia Tshisele and...

An international award was recently bestowed on Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) at Stellenbosch University, reocgnising his international contributions to virology, genomic surveillance and epidemic response. De Oliveira, also the founder and director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), was honoured with the prestigious Gardner Lectureship Award by the European Society for Clinical Virology (ESCV), at its 28th annual conference in Portugal last week. Receiving the award in Portugal was particularly special to him, as a Portuguese citizen who was appointed a Commander...

The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness is investigating allegations of drinking on duty after two apparently drunk Hanover Park healthcare workers were spotted at a taxi rank last Tuesday and captured on a widely circulated video, reports the Cape Argus. In the video, one bystander can be heard saying: “Dis daarom wat hulle elke keer die f****** verkeerde pille vir mense gee.” (That is why they keep dispensing the wrong medication.) A local resident said the man and the woman were reportedly nurses at Hanover Park Community Health Centre. “People have been talking about how this couple and two other...

Plans for a brand new academic hospital in Gauteng are being advanced, says the Gauteng Department of Health, as are those for a 300-bed mother and child unit extension and some major and critical infrastructure upgrades at several other public facilities, reports The Citizen. In a progress report on healthcare infrastructure delivery during the past financial year, it said it would bolster this progress by expediting other planned projects during the 2026/27 financial year. Several refurbishment and repair projects at major hospitals had been completed this past year, which included Ward 09 at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital, the Breast Clinic...

The much needed – and long-talked about – redevelopment of Tygerberg Hospital is one of the Western Cape’s “mega-builds for future infrastructure and a once-in-a-generation transformation of healthcare”, reports Nova News. A Statement of Intent was signed last week at a project update attended by Health & Wellness Minister Mireille Wenger Nonhlanhla Nkosi, the department’s deputy director general, with Marchel German, Ambassador of Global Gateway: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, Ditri Zandrstra, Director of Public Finance: Invest International, and Mohale Rakgate, acting head of Infrastructure Finance and Implementation Support Agency (IFISA) – partners in the...

Claims that Gauteng EMS staff were suspended for refusing to work overtime with extra pay have been denied by the Department of Health, reports EWN. Last week the DA claimed that 17 staff at the Selby, Hillbrow and Mofolo EMS bases had been affected – this as some EMS employees refuse to work overtime without being paid for their efforts. Yet, their 12-hour shift-roster incurs up to 25 additional hours. The department’s Steve Mabona confirmed a no-work-no-pay policy is in place. “About 21 officials have been issued with charge sheets for alleged dereliction of duty after failing to complete their scheduled working hours....

South Africa’s private health sector is continuing to be bled dry by thieves and cheats, with an eye-watering R30bn lost to fraud, waste and abuse in 2025, said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, linking this to corruption and deliberate manipulation of codes, as well as inefficiency and overcharging, reports Newsday. Motsoaledi shared this information last week in response to a parliamentary question from National Assembly member Thembinkosi Mjadu (MK Party), who had asked about corruption, a lack of protection for whistle-blowers, and a failure to take decisive action against corrupt behaviour. The Minister said the lost billions included claims for services not...

The scourge of diabetes shows no sign of waning in South Africa, with the latest Stats SA Mortality Report revealing that the disease accounted for 6.1% of the 474 366 deaths recorded in 2024, claiming 79 lives a day and ranking as the country’s biggest killer ahead of TB and HIV, reports IOL. The three leading causes of death in the country are now all non-communicable diseases – diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancer and high blood pressure – while hypertensive diseases came second at 5.5%, and cerebrovascular diseases, which included strokes, third at 5.4%. Diabetes hit women hardest, accounting for 7.9% of...

The University of Johannesburg (UJ), in partnership with the South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT), has launched a R2.5m mobile optometry clinic to take eye care into the hearts of communities, reports TimesLIVE. The fully equipped clinic will provide comprehensive eye examinations, assess eye health and manufacture spectacles on site, said Professor Nabeela Hasrod Gany, head of UJ’s department of optometry, who said the project was about more than simply diagnosing people with vision problems. “Diagnosis without access to the solution is not enough. This project is about closing the loop between diagnosis and immediate treatment by bringing clinicians, equipment and...

Dutch authorities have arrested an alleged leader of ShinyHunters, the cybercriminal group that has targeted global healthcare organisations and their third-party vendors – and which also recently breached confidential FBI staff and healthcare record data – reports Becker’s Hospital Review. The Dutch National Police’s High Tech Crime Unit arrested the suspect under Dutch law with the FBI’s support, said Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. The suspect, who is apparently 24, was not named. Since last year, the suspect and co-conspirators have allegedly breached more than 140 organisations in The Netherlands, the US and other countries, and collected at least...

A Boston, USA, judge ruled last week that the NPO that manages the organ transplant system in the country can’t wriggle out of claims it discriminated against black people seeking kidney transplants, reports Reuters. In her ruling, District Court Judge Indira Talwani largely rejected the United Network for Organ Sharing’s bid to dismiss two lawsuits accusing the group of using a race-based and unscientific calculation requiring black people with kidney failure to be sicker than patients of other races before they could receive a transplant. She said plaintiffs Deon Santos and Mark Thompson had done enough to allow their racial discrimination...

With demand for private healthcare remaining consistent, Netcare has said it remains on track to deliver its full-year guidance, with total paid patient days (PPD) having increased and with mental health PPDs also having risen in the year to date, reports Business Day. The group said in a voluntary update last week that total PPD grew about 1.6% in the year to end-September, while acute PPD increased about 0.8%. It added that the operating environment had been affected by interventions by medical schemes to strengthen their solvency positions, which included benefit changes, downgrading scheme options to lower-cost preferred provider network options...

A Hawks raid on an Mpumalanga herbalist shop netted R60 000 and large amounts of mercury, with police now investigating the illegal sales while the alleged owner remains under arrest, reports The Citizen. According to the Hawks, the female owner could not provide a reasonable explanation for the origin of the cash. The money was subsequently seized and deposited with the SAPS Finance Office in Mbombela. Colonel Magonseni Nkosi, spokesperson for the Mpumalanga Hawks, said the preservation order for the money forms part of the unit’s efforts to target assets allegedly linked to criminal activity.   The Citizen article – Hawks freeze R60 200...

As part of a “zero-tolerance crackdown” on snooping, instant suspension is on the cards for NHS England staff suspected of looking at patient records without a valid reason, while those under suspicion will be blocked from NHS computer systems, preventing any further viewing of confidential records, including from home, reports the BBC. NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey has written to every trust, ordering the measures to be introduced immediately to strengthen protection against data breaches. This comes after a series of high-profile incidents involving the records of Nottingham and Southport attack victims, and a child who was injured in...

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has recorded 1 086 confirmed Lassa fever cases and 259 deaths across 24 states and 118 local government areas so far year, reports Punch News. A report for epidemiological week 36, from 31 August to 6 September, recorded 12 new cases – but this was a decline from the 18 cases the previous week, it said. It represented a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 23.9%, which remained higher than the 18.6% recorded during the corresponding period in 2025. The agency said 24 states recorded at least one confirmed Lassa fever case across 118...

The Eastern Cape Department of Health is taking its fight against lump-sum payments for medico-legal claims to the Constitutional Court, punting alternative measures instead as part of a wider drive by government for law change to address  the claims burden. Despite these systemic failures identified by the Auditor-General, the department continues to blame lawyers’ “greed” rather than attempt to fix the standard of care which has been blamed for the high rate of medico-legal claims. News24 reports that Eastern Cape woman Zoe*, 33, had deliberately put off motherhood until her late 20s, and when she found out she was pregnant, had immediately...

What started as toothache led to a rare cancer diagnosis and years of medical treatment for Lerato Mosai (29), who has been bedridden for four years, and who is desperate for explanations, reports Health-e News. The Sasolburg woman has become totally dependent on her mother for her daily care. Mosai first went to a dentist because of severe toothache in 2021, and although two teeth were removed, the pain continued. During another examination, the dentist noticed swelling on her palate and referred her to Mediclinic Emfuleni Hospital. “The dentist extracted another tooth, and saw what looked what looked like a blister or a...

British lawyers will be taking on an NHS trust after more than 40 cancer sufferers endured years of unnecessary chemotherapy at the hands of a “rogue” doctor, reports Daily Mail. Medical experts have also pointed fingers at nurses and pharmacies, who ignored the years of continued prescription treatment without question or intervention. One of the patients, who underwent 13 years of chemotherapy for what he was told was an aggressive, life-limiting tumour, was devastated when he heard that the treatment, which was started when he was just 29, may never have been necessary. Andrew Whitehead said after surgery to remove a tumour...

A Californian hospital has reached a settlement of $18.5m with seven women who accused a physical therapist of sexually abusing them for years, reports Becker’s Hospital Review. The complaint alleged that at least five employees at Adventist Health Sonara had witnessed or received reports of sexual misconduct by Jason Elias – who had worked at at the facility for decades – from multiple women, as early as 2007. However, the health system did not immediately investigate, increase supervision or report him to law enforcement, according to the plaintiffs’ law firm, Lewis & Llewellyn LLP. The complaints said the patients had seen...