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Medico-Legal
Discovery judgments mount amid RAF dispute
Discovery Health says it has obtained judgments totalling more than R170m since the RAF’s controversial directive not to reimburse past medical expenses where a...
New sentencing date for Dickason
Former doctor Lauren Dickason, convicted of the murder of her three daughters – and currently in custody at the psychiatric Hillmorton Hospital – will...
Court rules police raid on Gauteng pharmacy unlawful
The SA police has been ordered to return confiscated items, including cannabis products and edibles, after it unlawfully raided a pharmacy without first obtaining...
Short-lived ALS drug faces class action suit after withdrawal
The manufacturer of the world’s newest treatment approved for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, has withdrawn the drug from the...
HPCSA acts against unauthorised procedures, serial fraudsters …
Guilty verdicts for unauthorised procedures under anaesthetic and broken instruments during root canal, among others, were handed down by the Health Professions Council of...
US lawmaker probes FDA inspection of Musk’s Neuralink
The US Food & Drug Administration has been questioned on why it did not inspect Elon Musk’s Neuralink before allowing the brain implant company...
FDA settles Ivermectin lawsuit brought by doctors
The US Food and Drug Administration has settled a lawsuit over some of its posts about Ivermectin, including what may have been one of...
Miami surgeon faces Brazilian butt lift complaints
A US surgeon has racked up three public complaints related to his reported mishandling of aesthetic procedures, including gluteal fat grafting – also known...
Hospital liable for child’s blindness
Gauteng Health can expect to fork out millions after a court confirmed a child’s blindness resulted from negligence at a state hospital after her...
Medico-legal payouts soar countrywide
In the past four years, the National Department of Health has coughed up R23.6bn in medico-legal claims countrywide, with all provinces seemingly unable to...
Discovery's contempt case against RAF moves a step closer
A full Bench of three judges is to hear the contempt of court application brought by Discovery Health against the financially stressed Road Accident...
CMS seeks to place Netcare scheme under curatorship
In yet another clash with the healthcare industry, and following recent accusations of hostility and harassment, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has applied...
Fatal dental visits for two Durban children
An investigation has been opened into the deaths of two Durban children who died after dental procedures at a Pinetown facility last month on...
Bath burn victim wins R1.3m damages from Limpopo Health
A patient who was badly burned and subsequently scarred after being washed in boiling water in 2014 has been awarded almost R1.3m in compensation,...
Gauteng Health bled dry with multi-million rand medical claims
In less a year, the Gauteng Health Department paid out R623m in negligence or malpractice proceedings – and R597m to private lawyers and state...
New hearing for dismissed Covid ‘hugging’ duo
Two healthcare hospitality staff – fired for spontaneously hugging on Christmas Day 2020 after serving hospital patients – will have to wait to hear...
Judge to decide on Canadian woman‘s quest for assisted death
A Canadian man has asked a judge to block his 27-year-old daughter’s medically assisted death – originally scheduled for 1 February – arguing she lacks...
Ombud finds UK doctors' failures with Covid DNR orders
In a serious breach of human rights, British doctors made do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders for elderly and disabled patients during the pandemic without telling patients...
‘Trial by media’, murder accused paediatrician claims in court
Five years after he was arrested, renowned paediatric surgeon Peter Beale took the stand in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to answer to the...
Gynae in botched op legal suit now faces fraud charges
A gynaecologist appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court last week facing fraud charges after a patient, Hlengiwe Mbambo, who claimed he botched her total...
Five nurses suspended amid negligence probe
Steve Biko Academic Hospital has placed five nurses on suspension after allegations of gross negligence relating to a video that involved a patient in...
UK health workers await Covid compensation hearing
Dozens of British healthcare workers with long Covid are still waiting for a High Court compensation hearing against the NHS, among others, whom they...
Triple murderer Lauren Dickason's sentencing delayed
South African doctor and convicted triple-murderer Lauren Dickason, who has been tightly guarded in a psychiatric hospital since being found guilty in August last...
Top court to decide on medical aid information disclosures
In a case that will have groundbreaking implications for medical schemes and its members, the Constitutional Court will today deliberate on the extent of...
Gauteng medico-legal claims decline
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko said her department was winning the battle against financial mismanagement and other challenges, and had recorded a 7% decline...
Victim’s father wants Beale prosecuted ‘at all costs’, says defence lawyer
The legal team for murder-accused paediatric surgeon Peter Beale said the father of a 10-year-old boy who died after being operated on by him...
Health MEC to pay woman R4.4m after hot-water burn
Limpopo Health will have to cough up more than R4m in damages for a woman who was severely burned – and subsequently scarred –...
Judge slams hospital nurses over cerebral palsy negligence
A Gauteng High Court judge has lambasted a Limpopo hospital after its negligence resulted in the birth of a child – now 12 –...
Doctor in Lottery circumcision scandal fails to challenge probe
A Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into National Lottery Commission (NLC) funding for a dodgy circumcision project is back on track, after Pretoria doctor...
Wrong family pulls plug on patient after hospital mix-up
In a terrible case of mistaken identity, a hospital in Vancouver, Canada, allowed a family to end life support on a man they thought...
Eastern Cape doctor in court on rape and kidnapping charges
A doctor pleaded not guilty this week when he appeared in the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) facing a string of charges including five...
Gauteng Health guilty of negligence over baby's foot deformity
The parents of a now 12-year-old – whose foot was severely deformed after a drip inserted into the limb was left unchecked for 10...
Canadian community sues after ‘secret medical experiment’
A class action lawsuit has been launched by an indigenous group in Canada alleging they were subjected to a secret medical experiment in 2017...
Judge rules in favour of ‘miracle doctor’ and against hospital
A Western Cape judge has found in favour of a leading oncologist whose admission and practising privileges at Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital were terminated...
Justice in sight for cerebral palsy victims of rogue attorney
A team of lawyers, acting pro bono, have secured a court order forcing the Legal Practice Council (LPC) to help the victims of a...
Couple accuses Ramaphosa of links to medical aid fraud
A couple with a history of litigation now claims that President Cyril Ramaphosa benefitted from fraud and corruption, linked to various medical schemes, while...
US company hit by lawsuits over destroyed IVF embryos
A surge of lawsuits has been launched against a major American medical supply company – CooperSurgical – with patients claiming that one of its products...
Leading SA medical experts back euthanasia court challenge
Respected South African medical experts, including professors, oncologists, ethicists and anaesthesiologists, have thrown their weight behind a pending court challenge to legalise assisted suicide,...
Defence in Peter Beale trial questions mother's memory
The credibility of evidence from the mother of a boy who died after a procedure by Peter Beale was questioned in the Gauteng High...
Gauteng doctor fined after botching hysterectomy
A Johannesburg doctor was found guilty last week by the Health Professions Council of South Africa of unprofessional conduct and incompetence, after botching the...