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Medico-Legal
Dismissed nurse fights back in alleged sexual harassment case
A Johannesburg nurse who was dismissed after lodging sexual harassment complaints against a senior manager is headed for the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and...
Gilead, Teva cleared in generic HIV medicines lawsuit
A federal court jury has cleared Gilead Sciences and Teva Pharmaceuticals of allegations that the companies struck an illegal deal that inflated prices for...
Gambian families sue Indian company for cough syrup deaths
Indian pharmaceutical company Maiden Pharmaceuticals is being sued by the families of 20 Gambian children whose deaths were linked to toxic cough syrups made...
Court blow for Discovery Health in RAF feud
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has dismissed Discovery Health’s bid to compel the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to immediately process medical scheme members’ claims...
Low-income context should be key consideration in CP litigation – SA review
Over the past half century, one medical malpractice claim – birth-related cerebral palsy (CP) – has had a major impact on obstetric care, resulting...
Woman to sue hospital after premature baby’s death
A woman whose baby died after she went into premature labour at Sebokeng Hospital is instigating legal action against Gauteng Health, saying nurses had...
Court gives policeman go-ahead to claim for missing finger
A former SAPS officer whose finger was amputated after he was bitten by a suspect while on duty has been given the green light...
Northern Cape sitting with R2.1bn medico-legal claims
Despite boasting the lowest population in South Africa (just 1m people), the Northern Cape is facing medical negligence claims of R2.1bn – made up...
Health official loses court bid to avoid medico-legal inquiry
A Health Department official’s attempt to prevent a disciplinary inquiry into allegations that he helped a law firm in its claims against the department...
Doctors to pay $29m after misdiagnosis and death
Two Boston doctors associated with Salem Hospital, a clinical affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, have to fork out nearly $29m to...
Bayer wins patent rights case against Clicks for blood-thinning medicine
More than a year after reserving judgment in an urgent application, Judge Colleen Collis has finally handed down her ruling, confirming pharmaceutical giant Bayer’s patent rights,...
Mental healthcare law challenge dismissed by ConCourt
The Constitutional Court has dismissed a challenge – by a civil rights group – to legislation governing the protection of mental healthcare patients, finding...
Woman in court over R3m nursing college fraud
A Limpopo woman who was on the run for six years and who is accused of defrauding students of more than R3m while running...
UK mother jailed for aborting at 32 weeks
A British mother of three has been given a 28-month sentence – 14 to be served behind bars, the rest on probation – after...
US doctors buy their way out of trouble
American medical practitioners and providers have coughed up $26.8bn over the past decade to settle federal allegations, including fraud, bribery and patient harm, a...
Pardoned mother as rare genetic mutation linked to children’s death
An Australian woman convicted of killing her four infant children says a decision to pardon her after 20 years is “a victory for science”...
HPCSA probes Mahikeng doctor for ice-wrap advice for newborn baby
With the furore over the babies-in-boxes saga at Mahikeng Provincial Hospital having barely died down, the facility is in trouble again after advice allegedly...
Nursing Council loses SCA appeal over college programme dispute
The South African Nursing Council (SANC) has lost an appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in a dispute over the start date...
Gambia hires US legal team over Indian cough syrup deaths
An American law firm has been hired by Gambian authorities after a government investigation found contaminated medicines from India were linked to the deaths...
Pregnancy test link to birth defects inconclusive, UK judge rules
London’s High Court has struck out a bid by scores of British families to sue pharmaceutical company Schering (now owned by Bayer) – former...
Court date for SA mother after daughters’ murders in New Zealand
Former Pretoria doctor Lauren Dickason, charged with murdering her three daughters soon after the family’s arrival in New Zealand last year where they planned...
Jailed Australia mother pardoned for deaths of her children
A woman jailed for 20 years for the deaths of her four children has been pardoned in New South Wales after a judicial review...
Court orders Gauteng Health to provide abortion for teen
The Gauteng Department of Health has been ordered by the courts to take action after a pregnant teenager was denied access to termination of...
Judge orders RAF to produce documents in medical tariffs challenge
In the latest development regarding the challenge to the medical tariffs promulgated last year for road accident victims claiming compensation from the Road Accident...
Still no judgment in urgent access to medicine case, a year later
A judgment in an urgent matter about the sale of generic blood-thinning tablets in South Africa has not been delivered, more than a year...
Culpable homicide charge after toddler’s death during load shedding
Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane had laid a charge of culpable homicide against Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Minister of Electricity...
Fraud charges for KZN Health ex-HoD over mobile clinics
Dr Sibongile Zungu, former head of the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department, appeared in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday charged with fraud and...
US Appeals Court ruling paves way for billions in opioid settlements
Drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma’s owners, the Sackler family, will relinquish control of the company and fork out up to $6bn in settlement money to...
Impairment-accused US GP wins millions in damages lawsuit
A US family physician, accused by a young patient’s mother of being impaired at work, has won his lawsuit against a Kentucky hospital, with...
MEC to pay after toddler burnt trying to leave locked ward
Gauteng’s health MEC has lost a negligence case to a mother whose three-year-old, admitted for seizures, was burned by a heater while under the...
SIU calls for tougher sanctions for health industry fraud
The SIU is spearheading 70 cases before the courts and a special tribunal involving fraud in the health industry, according to SIU head and...
Discovery now takes fight against R25m payout to SCA
Discovery Life is not giving up in its fight against forking out R25m to a former policy-holder deemed unable to work as a stockbroker,...
Life Esidimeni: Premier told 40 patients dying every year was ‘normal’
Former Gauteng Premier David Makhura told the Life Esidimeni inquest in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) this week that then-MEC of Health Qedani Mahlangu...
Prison for Theranos founder, who must pay back millions
Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of US start-up Theranos, will begin serving her prison sentence on 30 May for defrauding investors in the failed blood-testing...
MEC liable for damages after man’s leg amputated
A judge has ruled that the Gauteng Health MEC is 100% liable for a multimillion rand damages claim by a man who had his...
Court dismisses Discovery’s application to appeal R25m ‘disability’ ruling
The Gauteng High Court on Monday dismissed Discovery Life’s application for leave to appeal against its earlier ruling ordering the company to pay out...
Foreign-trained doctors go to court over delays in degree recognition
Hundreds of foreign-trained South African doctors are still sitting at home because the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has refused to recognise...
State Attorney lawyers investigated for medico-legal fraud
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating 18 lawyers linked to the Office of the State Attorney for allegedly making fraudulent medico-legal claims, amounting...
R77m legal fees for Life Esidimeni inquest, and counting
The inquest into the Life Esidimeni tragedy, which began in July 2021, has been a gruelling, traumatic business, during which time the families of...
SANDF doctor challenges demotion
A military doctor, Colonel Iqram Bux, who was unexpectedly demoted and transferred, is having his case heard in the Labour Court after a long-running...