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Medico-Legal Analysis
COVID-19 has spurred a litigatory pandemic in US
While US courts have historically been deferential to health orders, especially during disease outbreaks, as the pandemic has progressed, the courts have become more...
Premonitions of the ancestors? The validity of medical certificates from a traditional healer
As long as a traditional healer is certified and registered, his or her medical certificates are recognised, although not for COVID-19, the diagnosis of...
State doctors and the ‘myth of indemnification’ against adverse events
It’s a myth that doctors working in the public sector do not need indemnity and that they are fully indemnified against adverse events by...
Only aspect of Compensation Fund that worked now ‘duplicitously' destroyed
The Compensation for Occupational Injuries & Diseases Amendment Bill debated in Parliament last week is a duplicitous attempt to prevent the “win-win” intercession of...
Employees turn to constitutional protections to avoid mandatory vaccinations
Foreshadowing what’s likely to happen in South Africa, as more US employers move to mandatory vaccination for staff, the vaccine-sceptical are increasingly resorting to...
Meticulous record keeping — a tedious but necessary task
Medical practitioners spent copious amounts on paperwork and administration but it is essential to forestall negligence litigation, says Norton Rose Fulbright’s Natasha Naidoo.
The patient...
Meticulous record keeping — a tedious but necessary task
Medical practitioners spent copious amounts on paperwork and administration but it is essential to forestall negligence litigation, says Norton Rose Fulbright’s Natasha Naidoo.
The patient...
The long, slow exit of Health Minister Mkhize is over at last
The exit of Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, who had been on “special leave” since 8 June after allegations of involvement in tender irregularities,...
Government’s veil of silence over Cuban health workers
Rather curiously, given that South Africa has its own fully qualified doctors and nurses needing placement, almost R100m has been spent to import Cuban...
A few disproportionately responsible for SA’s gynaecological medico-legal burden
The disproportionately large contribution of a “small group of practitioners” towards South Africa’s medicolegal burden suggests a need for strengthened peer review and regulatory...
Ghana’s draconian anti-gay Bill punishes LGNTQ+ people and their supporters
Draft anti-gay legislation submitted to Ghana’s parliament proposes up to 10 years in jail for LGBTQ+ people as well as groups and individuals who...
SA’s criminalising of infant abandonment has been ‘a failure’
The criminalising of infant abandonment has been a failure, writes Murphy Nganga in a Weekend Argus report. The Children’s Act needs to be amended...
A legal position on business interruption insurance claims due to COVID-19
A United States appellate court found, in a case brought by oral and maxillofacial surgeons, that business impairment due to COVID-19 restrictions imposed did...
Protector’s ‘peculiar’ order on medical-negligence legislation
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has again dived headfirst into constitutionally murky waters, instructing the government to “within 90 days” act to finalise the controversial...
IRR submission on NHI Bill: ‘Blatant elite enrichment’
The National Health Insurance fantasy can be sustained only by turning a blind eye to many inconvenient truths, said the Institute of Race Relations...
COVID opened the telemedicine door. Now to embed it
COVID-19 provided an impetus for extensive use of telemedicine. The time has now come to convert a band-aid into a viable long-term safety net,...
Medical malpractice courts proposed to tackle soaring claims
The creation of specialist medical malpractice courts, which could use medically trained judges, is being proposed by the Actuarial Society of South Africa as...
SA’s new compulsory vaccinations regulations: Not an employer carte blanche
Last week's gazetting of regulations to allow employers to make COVID-19 vaccination compulsory, are not a blanket permission, writes labour attorney Michael Bagraim. It might...
Lawyers increasingly 'call the tune' with expert witnesses
Instructing solicitors must not jeopardise the impartiality of expert evidence, the Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court said, citing a study which suggests...
Success of No-Fault Compensation Scheme depends on efficiency of claims process
The extent to which claimants choose to avail themselves of the COVID-19 Vaccine Injury No-Fault Compensation Scheme r rather than litigate will in part...
How the no-fault Compensation Fund for vaccine injury will work
Cover for vaccine injury is vital and the mooted Compensation Fund, although still in the process of finalisation, outlines how this will take place,...
ConCourt judgment is an opportunity to resurrect Bill on state liability
While the recent Constitutional Court ruling that the courts may order alternative compensation to those injured as a result of medical negligence is sound...
Tiger Brands' listeriosis victims in legal limbo for 3 years
Food manufacturer Tiger Brands’ initial transparency and willingness to address legitimate claims by victims of the world's most lethal and larges listeriosis outbreak was...
UK's Court of Protection can compel a COVID-19 vaccination
The UK's Court of Protection — which has jurisdiction over the property, finances and personal welfare of people who lack mental capacity to make...
IP and COVID-19 medicines: Why a WTO waiver may not be enough
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the race to make vaccines and other useful technologies more accessible to people around the world, has once again highlighted...
Tobacco ban's failure shows the 'painful' limits to forcing social change
The failure of South Africa's tobacco sales ban shows the "painful" limits to forcing social change, writes Stellenbosch University's Prof Willem Boshoff. The overwhelming...
Govt's alcohol ban was not properly considered, argues SAB
South African Breweries (SAB) has argued that the government’s assertion that its decision to ban the sale of alcohol was taken carefully is without...
SA government can and should compel vaccinations — De Vos
Anti-vaxxing beliefs and vaccine hesitancy among a significant number of South Africans may hamper vaccination efforts in this country, writes Prof Pierre de Vos...
SA has the legal tools to challenge vaccine nationalism – and should use them
“International and national legal frameworks could enable the government to ensure generic COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured locally and in other developing countries, particularly in...
IP rights are rights a key, not a curse, to vaccine development
While morally appealing, calls for the suspension of intellectual property (IP) rights on COVID-19 vaccines would be a backward and misguided step, argue Mark...
Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies entail 'considerable legal risk'
Any attempt by an employer to mandate vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition for ongoing employment, aside from the ethical aspects, entails considerable legal...
What proposed Tobacco Bill means for vaping in South Africa
With the Control of Tobacco and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Bill (2018) on the horizon, health organisations and tobacco control lobbyists are failing to acknowledge the benefits...
Cannabis Bill flawed by privacy and equality concerns
Despite being a step in the right direction, the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill “is not holistic in achieving the goal of public health...
'Emergency medical treatment' and the legal position of COVID patients in ICU
Whether COVID-19 patients in need of extended care in an intensive care unit qualify for ‘emergency medical treatment’ is answered
by considering the South African...
Parliament should reconsider 'woefully lacking' Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill
South Africa could be a global leader in the cannabis sector but the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill is woefully lacking in proper research,...
A possible 'little guy' counter to outrageous US medical bills
The problem of outrageous medical bills and the patient's liability to pay the balance on charges not covered by medical insurance, are covered in a...
Former UK Chief Justice warns of folly and coercion over COVID-19
The British government had seized on the coronavirus to "exercise coercive powers over its citizens on a scale never previously attempted,”, said the country's...
Mkhize’s new health regulations: Power grab or tying loose ends?
As Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize’s proposed amendments to regulations on notifiable medical conditions came under fire in Parliament this week, some public health...
Medical device regulation in SA is a 'tangled web'
Technically, South Africa does not currently register medical devices in the way it registers medicines. So, asks Catherine Tomlinson writing Spotlight, what does it...
The legal dangers of rushed vaccines and pharma immunities
There are very real dangers to allowing pharmaceutical companies legal immunity in order to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine, writes The Independent.
Coronavirus made the fear...