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Medico-Legal
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...
Altria agrees to $235m settlement in vaping lawsuits
The Altria Group has agreed to pay $235m to settle at least 6 000 lawsuits accusing it of igniting a teen vaping epidemic through...
US court declines to hear Teva challenge over patented heart drug
The US Supreme Court has declined to hear Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals USA’s challenge to a $235m award to US-based GSK in a patent dispute...
HPCSA disciplinaries: sexual abuse, and failure to diagnose chronic disease
Incompetent hip surgery, an ambulance assistant who drove over a colleague, and two psychologists struck from the register. MedicalBrief’s roundup of recent findings by...
Doctors challenge law allowing pharmacists to give HIV meds without scripts
Two years after the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) published legislation in the Government Gazette to enable pharmacists to prescribe and dispense antiretroviral medicines...
Former MEC claims she was unaware of risks of Life Esidimeni transfers
Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu told the Life Esidimeni inquest that she was not told by department officials about the risks of transferring...
Gilead wins billion-dollar patent lawsuit against US Government
The US Government was slapped down by a federal jury on Tuesday which found that Gilead Sciences did not infringe US patents with its HIV-prevention...
US gynaecologist sued for photographing patients' genitalia
US lawyers representing 83 women have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against an Indiana physician who is accused of photographing their genitalia without their...
Chief medic fired for whistle-blowing awarded £3.2m
The former chief medical officer of the Isle of Man has been awarded a £3.2m settlement over her unfair dismissal for whistle-blowing, a tribunal...
Prison for Nigerian couple in UK organ trafficking plot
A British jury has sentenced Ike Ekweremadu, a wealthy Nigerian senator, to almost 10 years behind bars for an organ-trafficking plot in which he...
Surgeon ordered to pay R2m damages for hernia surgery injuries
A judge has ordered a Nelson Mandela Bay surgeon to fork out more than R2m in damages after performing surgery on a woman who...
SCA ruling stymies Gauteng Health bid to cut negligence costs
A Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling ordering the Gauteng Health Department to pay R800 000 to a woman harmed during gallbladder surgery to...
Life Esidimeni inquest: MEC dodges blame for ending contracts
Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu told the Life Esidimeni inquest she was not solely responsible for the decision to move mental health patients...
UK nurse accused of killing babies claims innocence
A British nurse accused of multiple murders and attempted murders of babies broke down in court this week when she told a jury she...
‘Malicious’ Gilead vs US in mega HIV drug patent trial
A courtroom clash is expected when the US Government takes on Gilead Sciences in Delaware this week, with the drug company fighting claims that...
Gynae's malpractice hearing stalls after plea change
Disgraced Cape Town gynaecologist Ganes Anil Ramdhin, who has been suspended from the Health Professions Council of SA three times and struck off the...
State still paying ex-MEC’s legal fees in Life Esidimeni case
Despite the 2017 resignation of former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, the state is continuing to pay her legal fees in the Life Esidimeni...