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Medico-Legal
New Zealand judge rules court custody for infant in anti-vax blood case
A New Zealand child, whose parents blocked lifesaving heart surgery for him because they didn't want “contaminated blood” from donors vaccinated against COVID-19, will...
Theranos’ Balwani jailed for 13 years over blood-testing hoax
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the former Theranos executive and business partner of disgraced biotech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in...
HPCSA head fights Wits dismissal
Professor Simon Nemutandani, president of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and former CEO and head of school at Wits University's School...
Parents sued for refusing blood from vaccinated donor for baby's surgery
Health New Zealand has approached the courts for intervention after a four-month-old baby’s parents refused permission for their infant’s heart surgery, saying a blood...
Daymed Hospital now faces Hawks bribery probe
The Hawks have set their sights on Pietermaritzburg’s Daymed Private Hospital, already the focus of a tax evasion scandal, over claims that its owners...
SIU recovers funds from Life Esidimeni facilities
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has recovered money from five NGOs that unduly benefited from Life Esidimeni patients’ Sassa grants six years ago, all of...
Vaping giant Juul coughs up millions to nearly 10 000 plaintiffs
Giant e-cigarette manufacturer Juul, which was accused of marketing its products to teenagers, has reached a settlement with about 10 000 plaintiffs and is...
Du Pont loses appeal over cancer toxic chemical ruling
A federal appeals court has upheld a $40m verdict for a cancer survivor who sued EI Du Pont de Nemours and Co after years...
French medicines agency under investigation over thyroid drug
The French national medicines agency is being investigated for “aggravated deception” in the case of Levothyrox, the thyroid medication whose change in recipe several...
Judge dismisses thousands of lawsuits claiming Zantac cancer link
A US judge in Florida has dismissed thousands of lawsuits claiming that popular heartburn medication Zantac causes cancer, ruling that unreliable methodologies were used...
Court orders release of State of Disaster decisions
Minister of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma must, by 9 December, deliver the records of the government’s decisions on the...
Health activist’s bid for complete tobacco ban dismissed
A spirited fight for tobacco to be completely banned in Kenya has gone up in smoke: the constitutional and human rights division of the...
NHS maternity scandal now expected to exceed 1 500 cases
The NHS could be facing its largest maternity scandal yet, with the review into services in Nottingham expected to exceed 1 500 cases, after...
Interdict issued against striking Gauteng health workers
The Gauteng Health Department has secured a court interdict against striking public healthcare workers after Tuesday’s wage-related demonstrations, when staff disrupted operations at both...
Ivermectin ruling set aside by Supreme Court of Appeal
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has set aside a controversial supervisory order, granted in April 2021, compelling the South African Health Products Regulatory...
RAF heads for Appeal Court over medical aid payout ban ruling
The Road Accident Fund (RAF) is unhappy with the judgment issued last month in which the High Court put an end to a payout...
After SCA ruling, DA wants Zuma back in prison by Friday
The DA wants Jacob Zuma back behind bars after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled this week that he should not have been released...
Eleven-year jail term for fraudster Theranos founder
A California judge ordered Elizabeth Holmes to spend more than 11 years in prison for fraudulently building her blood-testing startup Theranos into a $9bn company...
US anti-vax group sues founder in control battle
America’s Frontline Doctors (AFD) is suing one of its founders – headline-grabbing MD Simone Gold – in a battle for control over the controversial...
Eastern Cape paid R3.4bn in hysterectomy malpractice claims since 2014
Hysterectomy malpractice lawsuits are commonplace in South Africa, particularly in the Eastern Cape, which since 2014, has coughed up some R3.4bn in lawsuit settlements...
Court bid to halt new RAF medical tariffs
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) is due to hear an urgent application to stop Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and the Road Accident Fund (RAF)...
CMS accuses Health Squared of plotting its own liquidation
The Registrar of Medical Schemes believes that Health Squared orchestrated its own liquidation – and devised a plan to outmanoeuvre the registrar’s plans to...
State's case against 'certificate of need' ruling delayed
The decision on whether certain sections of the National Health Insurance Act are unconstitutional now rests with the Constitutional Court following the Gauteng High Court’s...
The plan to stop SA’s fake medical negligence claims
With the public health sector struggling to stay afloat under the weight of out-of-control, often fake, medical negligence cases, currently sitting at a combined...
Netcare sued for R20m after death of patient who was robbed and allegedly poisoned
More than a year after Bernard Katz was admitted to the Netcare Rosebank Hospital and later died there, during which time his sim card...
Sahpra to probe R850m Tembisa payments
The long list of suspicious payments and spending linked to procurement irregularities worth R850m from Tembisa Hospital is now also being investigated by the...
Former Bara CFO faces disciplinary hearing, threats, for whistle-blowing
A former CFO of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, who was credited with turning around the finances of the hospital before being poached by the...
Life Esidimeni: former Gauteng mental health boss denies concealing information
The former director of Gauteng’s Mental Health Services, Dr Makgabo Manamela, has denied a claim by former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu that she...
Fake sick note doctor to plead not guilty
An East London doctor who charged patients hundreds of rands for fake sick notes and who was nabbed by the Hawks, intends pleading not...
Expert urges active case-finding to start early TB treatment and save lives
Instead of waiting for patients to arrive at clinics, when they are already at risk of dying, authorities should beef up their efforts to...
Psychological report on existing children key to surrogacy plans – judge
Three judges in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), led by Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba, recently had to deal with the issue of whether...
First ever mass NHS nurses strike looms over pay
Thousands of nurses could walk off the job later this month when NHS workers take to the picket line over pay after Britain’s nursing...
EC Health MEC granted bid to appeal R22m damages order
After conceding liability for injuries and damages suffered during a childbirth at Mthatha General Hospital, Eastern Cape Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth has now sought...
Discovery wins court bid to stop ‘rogue’ RAF’ directive
A High Court judge has ruled in favour of Discovery Health by ordering the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to overturn a directive to reject...
Health MEC ‘meddled unlawfully’ in R10m dodgy scooter tender, inquiry hears
The Eastern Cape Health Department’s controversial R10.14m tender to buy motorcycles to be used as mobile clinics was a project of then Health MEC...
Former Limpopo Health HoD’s pension frozen over COVID deals
A preservation order has been granted to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) by the Special Tribunal to freeze the pension benefits of former Limpopo...
KZN hospital and owner charged with multimillion-rand tax fraud
The well-known KwaZulu-Natal Daymed Private Hospital and its owner, Dr Navind Dayanand, have been charged with numerous instances of tax evasion and credit fraud,...
Unregistered ‘doctor’ arrested for contravening Health Act
A routine visit by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) to a medical practice in Mahikeng led to the arrest of Valery Sakidi...
Indonesia revokes firms’ licences after 150 deaths from toxic meds
Indonesia’s national food and drug control agency (BPOM) has revoked licences for syrup-type drug production by two firms for allegedly violating manufacturing rules and...
US lawsuit claims L’Oreal’s hair straighteners caused cancer
Days after a study from the US National Institute of Environmental Health Safety (NIEHS) suggesting that hair-straightening products might significantly increase the risk of...