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Friday, 19 September, 2025

FOCUS: NHI

MEC under fire as health facilities buckle under pressure

Venilla Yoganathan - 0
Grappling with huge staff shortages and shrinking budgets – like public healthcare facilities across the country – Gauteng's Health Department is further crippled by damning audit outcomes and legal lashings in the courts. Opposition parties are calling for the resignation of MEC follwing the latest audit outcomes, announced this week, which Treasury warned that it was the only department in the province with non-compliant outcomes across every single audit area – due to a lack of effective internal controls. The department's weak...
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NEWS UPDATE

Time for SA to stand on its own, Aids experts agree

Healthcare and Aids activists agreed that it was time to face up to the reality of the US funding cuts – and its enormous impact on HIV treatment – and to change how South Africa plans and manages the challenges without outside assistance. Ina Skosana, reporting for Health-e News, said delegates at the 12th South African Aids Conference spoke with one voice when they urged a proactive response to the funding cuts. South Africans also needed to to be honest about the challenges linked to the withdrawal of American foreign aid, and stop saying “everything is fine”, warned Dr Anna Grimsrud,...

Call for 'war room' action as Eastern Cape children die of hunger

The deaths of 70 Eastern Cape children in the first six months of this year have been linked to severe acute malnutrition, which the Human Rights Commission has described as “a shameful symbol of a national disaster”. Daily Dispatch reports that Premier Oscar Mabuyane is now expected to appear before the HRC after being subpoenaed to detail the progress – or lack thereof – that his office has made in addressing the issue, which has long been a crisis not just in this province but countrywide. Almost three years ago, a report was released by the human rights watchdog detailing steps...

Millions spent on guarding abandoned hospital

A derelict and vandalised hospital that has stood empty for nearly 30 years is costing the Gauteng Department of Health R750 000 per annum in security guards – money that could have been far better spent on crucial supplies at other struggling, over-stretched facilities, critics have said. The total outlay of R35m on security guards at the old Kempton Park Hospital, which was apparently closed because it was “under-used”, is more than the R30m it cost to actually build back in the 1970s, reports the Sunday Times. And despite the expensive security, the building, which was shut down in 1996, has...

Concerns grow over lenacapavir price transparency 

South Africa may be able to start rolling out the twice-yearly anti-HIV drug lenacapavir (LEN) in January 2026 – three months earlier than planned – but many people are still in the dark regarding costs, with details of the arrangements to bring the medication into the country being guarded by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Even the SA National Aids Council (SANAC) says it doesn’t know what LEN will cost the country at the end of the Global Fund donation in two and a half years’ time, writes Ina Skosana for Health-e News. National Department of Health Director-General Dr Sandile Buthelezi told delegates...

Calls for urgent health reform at inaugural Ombud conference

Lives are being lost, and more placed at risk as legal bickering and challenges continue around the NHI Act, but, says Netcare Group CEO Dr Richard Friedland, “we don’t have the luxury of time”. “Let the legal battles continue, but let’s begin to collaborate across all sectors meaningfully,” he urged delegates at the inaugural Health Ombudsman Conference in Johannesburg last week, where a focus of the gathering of experts was universal health coverage. Friedland said the healthcare sector needed a fundamental shift towards preventative care to reduce the burden of chronic illness, non-communicable disease and mental illness, and that this included...

Probe after fire engulfs SA’s largest medical waste plant

Biohazard concerns and questions about nearby communities’ health and safety have been raised after a massive blaze that gutted South Africa’s largest medical waste incineration plant, which was already under scrutiny by the Green Scorpions for compliance issues in North West Province. Last Tuesday’s fire at Averda’s Klerksdorp facility – unreported until the Sunday Times began asking questions – had destroyed parts of the site that handle up to 800 tons of hazardous medical and pharmaceutical waste every month, including diseased body parts and organs. The company, whose head office is in Dubai, has yet to respond to requests for comment. On...

Council warns against fraudulent nurse certification


The South African Nursing Council (SANC) has issued an urgent warning to employers, nurses and the public regarding fake SANC Registration Certificates, Annual Practising Certificates (APCs) and epaulettes (shoulder pieces used to distinguish rank). The council said that fraudulent certificates of registration purporting to be SANC certificates as well as Annual Practicing Certificates are being duplicated and/or fraudulently created and openly sold to nurses and non-nurses. The council is entrusted to set and maintain standards of nursing education and practice in South Africa, and is an autonomous, financially independent, statutory body operating under the Nursing Act, 2005 (Act No. 33 of...

Boats, Bentleys and buildings seized in Tembisa probe asset haul

The probe into the web of corruption linked to Tembisa Hospital, triggered by whistleblower Babita Deokaran, is showing results, with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) recently seizing numerous assets belonging to tenderpreneur Hangwani Maumela and his family, as well as from Rudoph Mazibuko. High-end properties worth millions, as well as a fleet of luxury vehicles, have been confiscated, reports The Citizen, after two preservation orders secured by the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) were served on members of the two syndicates implicated in fraud and corruption at the hospital. The investigation was precipitated by the report from Deokaran, who was assassinated...

More children obese than underweight – Unicef

Unicef has warned governments to protect children’s diets from unhealthy ingredients and to stop the ultra-processed food industry from interfering in policy decisions – this after it released findings from a major study showing that for the first time, there are more obese than underweight children in the world. BBC reports that about one in 10 of those aged between five and 19-years-old – around 188m children and young people – are now thought to be affected by obesity. The researchers have blamed a shift from traditional diets to those heavily reliant on ultra-processed foods, which are relatively cheap and high...

Court rejects Mkhize's delay bid in Digital Vibes case

Former Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize was unsuccessful last week in his bid to delay the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) case pending his High Court review of its report into the unlawful R150m Digital Vibes contract, reports The Mercury. Mkhize, currently chairperson of the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cogta), had wanted the Special Tribunal to stay the SIU’s main application to force him, other individuals and companies, to repay R150m to the National Department of Health (NDOH), including interest at the prescribed rate, calculated from the date of the judgment. In the matter, still pending...

Suspended nurse claims victimisation for reporting abuse

A Gauteng nurse, who previously accused Clicks Pharmacy’s management of ill-treating her for reporting sexual harassment, has been suspended for breaching company ethics by talking to the media about the alleged abuse, reports The Citizen. Linda Motloung, who was working for Tsakane Clicks Pharmacy Clinic in Brakpan, Gauteng, was suspended last Friday due to “pending investigations into allegations of gross misconduct and a serious breach of company policies”. “Around May 2024, you initially changed the clinic trading hours and failed to comply with instructions from the employer that you immediately stop closing the facility before 5pm,” the suspension letter reads. The second...

WHO ends mpox public health emergency, Africa CDC extends it

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had ended the public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) for mpox outbreaks in Africa, reports CIDRAP, but the Africa CDC, however, has opted to extend the public health emergency of continental security (PHECS) status, after a meeting of its own mpox emergency committee. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that the WHO’s mpox emergency committee, which has been meeting every three months, had based its decision on cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other hot spots, including Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, reports CIDRAP. “We also have...

Nigerian doctors down tools over pay, welfare issues

Frontline doctors in Nigeria's public hospitals began a five-day strike last Friday over unpaid allowances and unresolved welfare concerns, their union said. Kazeem Odumbaku, secretary general of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), told Reuters the government had failed to meet their demands, which include disbursing the 2025 medical residency training fund and payment of salary arrears. Resident doctors – medical school graduates training as specialists – are pivotal to frontline healthcare in Nigeria as they dominate the emergency wards in its hospitals. The union represents around 15 000 resident doctors out of a total of more than 40 000 doctors...

Ebola vaccination campaign kicks off in southern DRC

Vaccination for people exposed to the Ebola virus and frontline health workers has begun in southern Kasai province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organisation has said. AP reports that an outbreak of the highly contagious disease was announced earlier this month in the area, which has left at least 16 dead and 68 suspected cases, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only an initial 400 doses of the Ervebo vaccine have been dispatched, with the rest to be delivered later, the WHO said. The operation has been hampered by limited access and scarce...

MEDICO-LEGAL

Court rejects Mkhize's delay bid in Digital Vibes case

Former Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize was unsuccessful last week in his bid to delay the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) case pending his High Court review of its report into the unlawful R150m Digital Vibes contract, reports The Mercury. Mkhize, currently chairperson of the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cogta), had wanted the Special Tribunal to stay the SIU’s main application to force him, other individuals and companies, to repay R150m to the National Department of Health (NDOH), including interest at the prescribed rate, calculated from the date of the judgment. In the matter, still pending...

Families blame patients’ deaths on doctor’s suspension

The families of patients of a suspended cardiologist are demanding answers from Life Westville Hospital, Durban, for the deaths of their loved ones, whom they believe would still be alive had it not been for his suspension earlier this year. Dr Ntando Peaceman Duze’s supporters, including patients and their families, and members of the MK party, held a protest at the hospital last month demanding his reinstatement, alleging racial discrimination, professional jealousy and sabotage were at the crux of the matter, reports the Sunday Tribune. Last Thursday, they held a media briefing where they reiterated their calls for the hospital to...

Doctor allegedly ‘poisoned patients to show off resuscitation skills’

A French doctor is on trial on accusations of deliberately poisoning patients undergoing surgery so he could resuscitate them when they went into cardiac arrest. After years of intense investigation, Frédéric Péchier (53) was tied to 30 incidents, 12 of which resulted in patients’ deaths, with the doctor reportedly blaming “medical errors” by his colleagues for the majority of the poisonings, reports People magazine. Péchier is accused of poisoning the 30 child and adult patients when he worked as an anaesthetist at Saint-Vincent Clinic and the Franche-Comté Polyclinic in Besançon between 2008 and 2017, according to France24. The patients were aged between...

No sanction for doctor who left patient during op for sex with nurse

A doctor in Britain who left a patient midway through an operation to have sex with a nurse is at “very low risk” of repeating his serious misconduct, a medical tribunal has ruled. The Guardian reports that Dr Suhail Anjum (44), and the unnamed nurse were caught in a “compromising position” by a colleague who walked in on the pair at Tameside Hospital in Manchester. The consultant anaesthetist had asked another nursing colleague to monitor the male patient, who was under general anaesthetic, so he could go to the bathroom. Instead, Anjum, a married father of three, went to another theatre...

Kimberly-Clark to fork out millions for dodgy surgical gowns

US giant Kimberly-Clark has to pay up to $40.4m to resolve a criminal charge relating to its sale of adulterated MicroCool surgical gowns, with the Justice Department saying it betrayed the trust of consumers and healthcare providers “when it chose to defraud the FDA and bring adulterated surgical gowns to market for its own financial gain”. According to court filings, a company employee had conducted fraudulent testing on the company’s MicroCool gowns to avoid having to submit a pre-market notification to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after Kimberly-Clark made a change to the garments. A pre-market notification is meant...

Indian doctor probed after doing 21 C-sections in 10 hours

A senior gynaecologist in Assam, India, who is under investigation after performing 21 emergency Caesarean deliveries within a single shift, has justified the numbers, saying that multiple deliveries in a busy hospital are not unusual. Dr Kantheswar Bordoloi, who serves as the senior medical officer at Morigaon Civil Hospital, carried out 21 lower segment C-sections (LSCS) between 3.40pm on 5 September and 1.50am on 6 September, reports The Independent. He has been asked to explain why he should not face disciplinary action – with authorities raising concerns about the safety and well-being of the mothers and newborns involved. Bordoloi has been given three days within which he must submit...

SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE PAST WEEK

ALLERGIES

New foods suggested for allergens list – French study

Several new foods should be added to the common allergens list, with researchers saying a shift in eating patterns over the past decade has exposed consumers to new allergy risks. While...

DIABETES

Cannabis use may quadruple diabetes risk – large global study

A massive real-world study from Europe and the USA has suggested that cannabis users face an almost four times greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes within five years...

Half of those with diabetes don’t know they have it – US study

Recent data analysis published in The Lancet shows that 44% of people with diabetes – aged 15 and older – are undiagnosed and don’t even know they have it, reports...

GERIATRICS

How later mealtimes may be linked to earlier death – UK study

A recent longitudinal study by an international team of researchers has suggested a link between eating breakfast later in the day and a greater chance of an early death...

OPHTHALMOLOGY

Daily eye drops could do away with spectacles

Special eye drops combining pilocarpine and diclofenac helped patients read extra lines on vision charts, with effects lasting up to two years. The treatment could revolutionise presbyopia care as...

PUBLIC HEALTH

Public healthcare patients often deemed ‘unworthy’ – UCT study

Marginalised categories of patients are considered less deserving of essential services by South African health workers, according to a recent University of Cape Town study probing healthcare inequalities, which...

DERMATOLOGY

Dermatitis drug may be tied to increased cancer risk

People with atopic dermatitis who took the drug Dupixent had a four times greater risk of developing a rare skin cancer than those who didn’t, a recent study has...

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