South Africa
HPCSA backs down on board exams for overseas-qualified doctors
In the face of legal action, the Health Professions Council of SA has agreed not to limit the number of overseas-qualified doctors allowed to write board exams each year. A group of 77 South African doctors who qualified overseas but wanted to...No SAHRC action against staff over woman forced to give birth at clinic gates
The SA Human Rights Commission says no action has been taken against Pretoria clinic officials who turned away a heavily pregnant woman who ended up giving birth outside the gates. The Times quotes Gauteng manager at the commission Buang Jones as...'Silver bullet' on its way to being reality Mkhize tells parliamentarians
According to the parliamentary portfolio committee on health, the National Health Insurance scheme is Dr Zweli Mkhize's "silver bullet" to ensure that rich and poor have equal access to healthcare. The Parliamentary Communication Services has...More than 300 complaints to HPCSA about bogus practitioners
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) says it has had more 300 complaints so far this year regarding bogus doctors and is doing all it can to stop unregistered doctors practising in the country. A Daily News reports that this was after the...Biovac to start local production of Sanofi and Pfizer vaccines
The Biovac Institute , a SA public-private partnership, will start local production of Sanofi’s Hexavalent vaccine in 2020 and Pfizer’s anti-pneumonia Prevnar 13 vaccine in 2021, boosting the supply of life-saving drugs in its main market,...Lagging middle-class incomes hurt medical scheme take up
Spiralling costs are playing havoc with middle-class incomes amid a stagnant economy and are driving people to reconsider whether they should be re-joining medical aid schemes. Business Day reports that this is according to the country’s biggest...Life Healthcare dumps its Indian hospital group venture
Private hospital group Life Healthcare has concluded the sale of its stake in Indian hospital group Max Healthcare for R3.7bn, marking the final nail in the coffin for the disappointing venture. According to a Business Day report, analysts said the...SA’s insurance claims profile for 2018 — Liberty report
KwaZulu-Natal tops the list when it comes to insurance claims for cardiovascular diseases, reports The Times. Financial services group Liberty's claim statistics for 2018 revealed that the province had the most claims for cardiovascular diseases in...Ramaphosa says that revision of NHI is 'far advanced'
The government is at a “far advanced” stage in the revision of a detailed National Health Insurance (NHI) plan for implementation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his third State of the Nation (SONA) address in two years. Ramaphosa said...
SA wild animals most dangerous to people — ER data
June 19th, 2019 The question as to which SA wild animals are the most dangerous to people is addressed by Medibank data for 2015 to 2018, on patients attended to at 45 Netcare emergency departments. Mande Toubkin, Netcare’s GM: emergency, trauma, transplant...
Ramaphosa demands report on initiate deaths
June 12th, 2019 President Cyril Ramaphosa has demanded traditional leaders account for the high number of initiate deaths and amputations that overshadow traditional male circumcision every year. A Daily Dispatch report says Ramaphosa’s concern was revealed by...Medical device industry rejects Discovery's planned fees
South Africa’s biggest medical scheme administrator Discovery Health plans to introduce hefty fees to assess the effectiveness of medical devices such as glucose monitors, drawing sharp criticism from a supplier body group that has warned its...Shoddy systems at JHB forensic science lab puts cases at risk
Successful criminal prosecutions in three provinces relying on the Forensic Science Laboratory in Johannesburg for analysis, including post-mortem results, could be jeopardised following a report recommending its closure because of shoddy systems....Still no regulatory changes despite 200 listeriosis deaths
It has been more than a year since 200 people died in a listeriosis outbreak, and the government has still not passed changes that might be able to stop future flare-ups of the disease, reports The Star. The country had a major listeriosis...'Dramatic’ scheduling exemption for cannabidiol
The legal status of cannabidiol (CBD), a compound derived from dagga that is showing up in everything from sore-muscle creams to beer, just changed in South Africa – rather more dramatically than had been expected, reports Business Insider. For...