South Africa
Hospital security fails yet again with another patient shot dead in Durban
Brazen attacks on patients and staff continue with apparent impunity, with a patient shot dead in a Durban hospital, writes MedicalBrief. A report in MedicalBrief in September of last year showed that more that 30 hospitals in South Africa had...Woman gives birth in taxi after clinic admission is refused
Two nurses from Buxedene Clinic, near Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal, have been suspended for allegedly failing to assist a pregnant woman who then gave birth in a taxi at the side of the road, reports News24. KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu...KZN Health welcomes controversial Gauteng 'payment in kind' ruling
KZN Health has welcomed a controversial recent Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) ruling that Gauteng Health will no longer have to fork out large cash sums for negligence at state medical facilities. The Mercury reports that in terms of the ruling,...Eastern Cape Health report highlights scale initiation death crisis
A recently released document from Eastern Cape Health shows the horrifying scale of the initiation death crisis in the province, where 816 initiates have died in the past 13 years. According to a Daily Dispatch report, so troubling are the...Warrants of arrest issued for paediatric surgeon and anaesthetist
Warrants of arrest have been issued for paediatric surgeon Dr Peter Beale and anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi, reports News24. Beale and Munshi are accused of negligence and face culpable homicide charges in connection with a routine laparoscopic...As deaths mount, a call for medical circumcision to replace the traditional
Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital head of urology Dr Mbuyiselo Madiba has called for traditional circumcision in the Eastern Cape to be banned for a year and replaced with medical circumcision. Times Select reports that this comes as the summer...Traditional leaders want more policing, following death of 7 more initiates
Eastern Cape chair of the House of Traditional Leaders, Nkosi Mwelo Nonkonyana, has called for the intensification of monitoring interventions, including more resources for police, following the death of another seven initiates, reports The...Concern over 'soaring' baby deaths at Gauteng hospital
Baby deaths have soared at Dr George Mukhari Hospital, near Ga-Rankuwa north of Pretoria, in the past five years, while the number of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) decreased. The Times reports that Gauteng Health MEC Bandile...Spate of attacks reveal training failure of hospital security guards
With another spate of attacks at Eastern Cape hospitals and clinics this weekend, concerns are being raised over the training of security guards at the healthcare institutions, says a Daily Maverick report. Amid growing concern about security at...Gauteng surgeon under investigation withdraws from award ceremony
Organisers of a ceremony recognising the work of Gauteng's paediatric doctors have announced that surgeon Professor Peter Beale has withdrawn from the awards. The Times reports that Beale, who is under investigation for the deaths of eight children...Mkhize again moots a cap on medical claims, as they reach a record R100bn
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is proposing a law that would put a cap on medical claims against the state after they shot up to R100bn. According to an IoL report, Mkhize and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni have warned that these claims were...Cuban medical training costs more than double than in SA
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says the annual cost of doctor training in Cuba is R331,000 per person – more than double what it would cost at a local medical school, and it takes a year longer, reports The Citizen. The Free State government has...Discovery rejects 'flawed' race bias findings
Discovery Health has hit back at expert testimony before the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) which claimed widespread race bias "in the outcome" of fraud investigations, saying the methodology was severely flawed, Beeld reports. Statistician Dr...Most of R11.4bn vaccine contract goes to state-backed developer
State-backed vaccine developer Biovac has secured the lion’s share of the government’s new R11.4bn contract to supply childhood vaccines, ending months of uncertainty about the company’s future. Business Day reports that Biovac is a...'Widespread and consistent' racial bias by top medical schemes
There was "widespread and consistent" evidence of discrimination in the outcome of investigations into fraud, waste and abuse by the top three medical schemes, according to evidence presented by Zaid Kimmie, director of the Foundation for Human...