South Africa
Medical-device manufacturers scrambling for SA licences
Medical-device manufacturers, importers and distributors are scrambling to apply for licences with the Medicines Control Council (MCC) as it takes a step closer to regulating the industry, reports Business Day. The lack of regulatory oversight of...DoH adjusts SA public hospital means test
The SA Department of Health has adjusted the means test used to determine who is eligible for free or discounted fees at public hospitals, reports Business Day. The development corrects the unintended consequence of the government’s failure to...Doctor arrested for drug dealing in SAPS sting
A 35-year-old doctor based at Elim Hospital in Limpopo has appeared in court facing charges of drug dealing after he was arrested during a tactical sting operation by police. Health-e News reports that the doctor was arrested along with an...Durban hospital's managers get bodyguards after death threats
Top managers at a Durban hospital, where the labour relations manager was shot last month during the course of a corruption probe, turned up for work on Monday morning accompanied by a phalanx of bodyguards. Business Day reports that this was...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...