South Africa
Ground-breaking surgery on prem baby at Tygerberg
A pulmonary balloon dilation on a premature baby was carried out at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town for the first time in SA, reports The Times. When Ruzain Hermanus was just five months pregnant‚ she went into kidney failure with the cause...SA's private hospitals ranked by patients
South Africa’s top 20 private hospitals, ranked by Discovery Health patients based on their experiences, have been announced, reports The Times. The hospitals rated best in the survey for the large‚ medium and small categories respectively were:...SA minority are 'fighting tooth and nail against the NHI revolution'
Apartheid built healthcare inequalities. It is up to the National Health Insurance (NHI) to dismantle them, writes South Africa’s Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi in the Sunday Times. “Like birth, revolution is characterised by blood and...SA's state laboratory services face a looming strike
A deadlock between laboratory workers and the National Health Laboratory Service has raised the prospects of a nationwide strike. The country's health services could be facing another strike‚ The Times reports the DA in Gauteng has warned....MPLA calls for law change over medical negligence claims
SA legislation should be amended to stipulate that future medical negligence claims must be prosecuted within three years after the incident occurred, says David Campbell, MD at medical indemnity insurance company MPLA, in...'Insufficient evidence' ends HPCSA inquiry into bullying, racism and sexism claims
The Health Professionals Council of SA has closed its inquiry into allegations by Dr Yumna Moosa of bullying, racism, and sexism by senior doctors at a KwaZulu-Natal hospital, due to 'insufficient evidence', reports The Mercury. The complaint...Gupta company cited in court papers for holding back clinic opening
A 24-hour clinic serving 20,000 people and was supposed to open in Apil, remains unfinished, allegedly because the Gupta-owned Optimum Coal has failed to pay the building company, reports Groundup. Kwazamakuhle Clinic in Hendrina was supposed to...Confusion over the SA state hospital treatment fee
Uncertainty reigns over wide variations in how state medical facilities vary in the amount and under what circumstances they charge patients a treatment fee. Do state hospitals charge patients a treatment fee? The Times reports that that is the...SA making progress in fight against TB, but more must be done
South Africa is making progress against tuberculosis but much more needs to be done, reports Groundup. That was the message from Dr Nazir Ismail, head of the Centre for Tuberculosis at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases...SANAC rejects corruption claims
The South African National Aids Council (SANAC) has rejected claims of corruption and a lack of confidence in the council, reports Groundup. According to the publication, at the South African National AIDS Conference SANAC civil society leaders...SANAC crisis grows as activist organisations threaten withdrawal
Activists protested against the SA National AIDS Council at the opening of the SA AIDS Conference in Durban, with five civil society organisations threatening to withdraw from a SANAC that has been 'reduced to irrelevance'. Groundup reports that...40% of South Africans plan to 'pull a sickie' over winter
A survey by a SA colds and flu medicine provider reveals that a 'sickie' isn't just a British phenomenon, with almost 40% of South Africans polled saying they’re planning on 'pulling a sickie' in June or July. Pharma Dynamics surveyed more than...Increase in bogus doctors and pharmacists via recruitment agencies
Bogus doctors and pharmacists are increasingly seeping into the health system, says the SA Medical Association. The Cape Argus report quotes SA Medical Association chair Dr Mzukisi Grootboom as saying they had noted several cases where people...Slow start to landmark SA HIV vaccine trial
Stringent global standards to enlist participants are slowing the process of volunteering to participate in South Africa’s ground-breaking HIV vaccine trial, known as HVTN 702 but News24 reports that despite the administrative snag, the vaccine...SA has highest percentage of human error healthcare data breaches – report
The average per capita cost of healthcare data breaches in South Africa in 2015 was $1.87m, and SA companies had the highest percentage of human error data breaches, as well as the highest estimated probability of occurrence,...