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Medico-Legal
Medical experts in legal bid to halt vaccines, probe Covid jab
Three non-profit groups, and various medical experts, have approached the courts in efforts to get the government to immediately stop its Covid-19 vaccination campaign,...
Fraud and abuse cost medical schemes R28bn a year
Medical aid fraud and abuse is costing the sector up to R28bn every year, with some companies saying up to 15% of claims include...
Doctor charged for calling peers murderers for administering Covid vaccine
The SA Medical Association (Sama) has laid charges with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) against Dr Tros Bekker for calling his...
Mediclinic staffer loses appeal bid over sick leave ruling
A former Potchefstroom Mediclinic employee, who has been unsuccessfully fighting for 10 years against his dismissal, has struck out again, with the Labour Court...
NPA appeal stalls start of doctor’s R420m theft trial
Appeals to Shamila Batohi, head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), have led to the stalling of the R420m fraud/corruption trial of medical doctor...
French court dismisses inquiry against ex-Health Minister over Covid handling
France’s top appeals court has thrown out a judicial investigation into alleged negligence by former Health Minister Agnes Buzyn in her handling of the...
HPCSA disciplinaries from August to November 2022
Several cases of medical aid fraud, inappropriate sexual examination, misrepresentation of qualifications, and unregistered ambulance services…. MedicalBrief reports on the latest disciplinaries from the...
Triumph for medical schemes as RAF denied leave to appeal payment ruling
In a development that has industry-wide implications, the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has denied the Road Accident Fund (RAF) leave to appeal against its ruling...
Fraud-accused PMB hospital owner served with restraint order
Pietermaritzburg doctor and hospital owner Dr Navind Dayanand, accused of swindling the South African Revenue Service (SARS) out of millions of rands, insists he...
Trust resumes payout process for miners with TB or silicosis
The process of paying compensation to former mineworkers who contracted TB or silicosis between March 1965 and December 2019 got into full swing this...
Welsh nurses' Covid deaths linked to 'industrial disease' in landmark ruling
In a landmark inquest ruling on the deaths of two nurses, a coroner cited for the first time the link between Covid-19 and industrial...
Judge approves multi-million dollar class action settlement against vaping giant
A multi-million-dollar settlement by Juul Labs has been given preliminary court approval to resolve consumer claims that it had deceptively marketed e-cigarettes – and...
US federal probe into baby formula company
The US Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation last week into an Abbott Laboratories plant in Michigan over unsanitary workplace conditions in its...
Diet drug ruling appeal set for June in France
An appeal in the case related to the anti-diabetic drug benfluorex, sold under the brand name Mediator in France, will hear some 692 trial...
California AG sues big pharma over insulin prices
Six major companies that dominate the US insulin market are being sued by Californian Attorney-General Rob Bonta, who believes they are violating the law...
Doctor charged with defrauding FNB, Sasol of R420m
A doctor accused of defrauding First National Bank and Sasol of R420m through a cross-border petroleum syndicate is seeking bail in a separate R7m fraud case,...
Texas medical schools sued over race-based admissions
A Texas man has filed a lawsuit against six US state-run medical schools, accusing them of violating anti-discrimination laws by using affirmative action to give...
NPOs in court bid to halt SA Covid vaccination campaign
Three non-profit organisations have brought an application in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to stop the country’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign until a full investigation by...
KZN doctor negligent, liable for brain damage of man with overdose history
A KwaZulu-Natal doctor has been found liable for the brain injury of a patient admitted to the emergency unit of Life Westville Hospital eight...
Tribunal upholds ‘grossly negligent’ ruling against Tembisa Hospital CEO and staff
After the death of a critically ill Tembisa Hospital patient, who was not fed for two days before he died, an independent ad hoc...
CMS faces court action after refusal to pay child’s rare disease treatment
An urgent application has been filed against the Council of Medical Schemes (CMS) by the mother of a three-year-old boy to appeal a refusal...
SANBS CEO guilty of negligence over MBA qualification
SA National Blood Service (SANBS) CEO Ravi Reddy has been found guilty of negligence by allowing the body’s digitalised annual report to display his...
Nurse who jabbed 8 000 patients with saline, not Pfizer, loses licence
A Red Cross nurse in Germany, who injected up to 8 600 elderly people with a saline solution instead of a Covid-19 vaccine, has...
Second prison sentence for crooked US doctor
A former US surgeon, who pretended to be a licensed physician after being released from prison in March 2017, has been sentenced again, with...
Tembisa tender kingpins to face prosecution
The much plundered Tembisa Hospital was the focus of activity this week, as a Hawks raid saw detectives seizing computers and documents, their haul...
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...