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Medico-Legal
Health Department to pay damages after patient falls from 5th floor of hospital
Eastern Cape health authorities are liable for damages to a widow after her husband fell from the fifth floor window of the Livingstone Hospital...
ANC bigwigs score millions from Tembisa Hospital
ANC Ekurhuleni boss Sello Sekhokho sold groceries, office supplies and medical equipment to Tembisa Hospital worth nearly R15m in three years, providing easily available...
Tribunal dismisses Digital Vibes beneficiaries’ bid to avoid scrutiny
The Special Tribunal has dismissed an application by six companies not to be joined in the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU’s) court bid to recover...
Judge rejects mom’s R5m claim for loss of child’s toe
Nearly 12 years after a baby had the tip of his toe amputated after a car accident, his mother’s claim for more than R5m...
Bail denied to bogus doctor charged with teen rape, sexual assault
The Kimberley Magistrate’s Court denied bail this week to a bogus doctor who had been arrested and charged with raping a 17-year-old patient, and...
Senegalese medics arrested after death of pregnant woman, baby
Three Senegalese health workers have been arrested after a pregnant woman and her baby died, allegedly because of a botched Caesarean section.
The gynaecologist, anaesthetist...
Juul to fork out millions of dollars after e-cigarette marketing probe
E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc has agreed to pay $438.5m to settle claims by 34 US states and territories that it downplayed its products'...
1 000 families to sue UK gender identity service
Britain’s only children’s gender identity development service (GIDS), run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, is to be sued by “at least...
Life behind bars for vegan mother who starved baby to death
A vegan mother in Florida, US, has been given a life sentence for murder for the malnutrition death of her 18-month-old son, who was...
UK surgeon fired for whistle-blowing wins claim against healthcare watchdog
An orthopaedic surgeon dismissed for whistle-blowing about patient safety concerns has won his claim against Britain’s Care Quality Commission (CQC), where he had a...
Ugandan hospital sued after allegedly detaining teen patient over unpaid bill
Activists have sued a Ugandan hospital for refusing to allow the discharge of a 14-year-old boy, who was seriously injured after being hit by...
Medical bodies condemn surgeon’s arrest and murder charge after patient’s death
The South African Private Practitioners Forum (SAPPF), Surgicom and the Association of Surgeons of South Africa (ASSA) have strongly condemned the arrest of a...
State liable for child’s cerebral palsy after Bara birth 17 years ago
The Gauteng Government and its Departments of Health and Social Development are liable for 100% of the damages a baby suffered during birth 17...
Health Squared spent millions on non-essentials as membership shrank, court papers show
Health Squared medical scheme’s administrator, Agility Health, is holding discussions with the scheme to try to ensure its most vulnerable members do not face...
Judge orders medical aid to pay for boy's expensive medication
An Alberton mother has won a significant court battle against her medical aid scheme, forcing it to pay for an expensive drug that her...
Discovery challenges RAF directive in court
A new directive from the Road Accident Fund (RAF) rejecting claims for past medical expenses if the claimant’s medical aid had already been paid...
Vaccine-makers slug it out over alleged patent infringements
Moderna is suing Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for patent infringement linked to the development of the first COVID-19 vaccines, alleging that mRNA...
US nurse faces murder charge after unauthorised injection for war veteran
A former nurse in the US has been indicted for murder in the death of a patient at a Lexington hospital, after giving the 97-year-old...
Accident victim challenges RAF decision on medical aid payments
A man who was seriously injured in a car accident has asked the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to overturn a decision by the Road...
Ill child’s parents sue medical aid over drug for rare disease
Parents of a toddler with a rare disease are pinning their hopes on the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) granting an urgent application forcing Medihelp...
Health Squared medical aid scheme applies to be wound up
Some 48 000 members and their beneficiaries, who will be without medical cover from 1 September when South African medical scheme Health Squared dissolves...
Kimberley doctor charged with rape of two patients
A medical doctor, accused of raping two patients, is in custody after a bail application in a Kimberly court on Monday.
The National Prosecuting Authority...
Former PMB hospital finance boss charged with fraud two decades later
Two people, one a former acting finance manager at a state hospital, appeared in court last week charged with defrauding the Department of Health...
Top US pharmacy chains ordered to pay $650m in opioids ruling
America's three largest pharmacy chains have been ordered to pay £539.8m for helping fuel a painkiller crisis in two Ohio counties, after a US...
Enyobeni tavern owner charged with Liquor Act violation
Parents of the 21 teenagers who died at the Enyobeni tavern in East London in June under mysterious circumstances want the owner of the...
'Understaffed' NHI pilot hospital a publicity stunt, say locals
Eastern Free State residents in Qwa-Qwa say the Mofumahadi Manapo Hospital, declared a National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot by former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize,...
Limpopo Health MEC faces jail time for contempt of court in salaries dispute
In a labour case dating back to 2012, Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba could face a jail sentence or pay a fine for contempt...
Employee transferred following nepotism probe at Red Cross Children’s Hospital
A labour relations officer at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town has been recommended for transferral after complaints of nepotism...
J&J confirms end to global talc sales amid contamination litigation
Johnson & Johnson, which faces a barrage of legal challenges over its talc-based baby powder, confirmed last week that it would stop selling global...
US anti-vax doctor starts prison sentence for Capital Riots break-in
Controversial anti-vaxxer US doctor Simone Gold, founder of America’s Frontline Doctors and promoter of unproved COVID treatments like Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, was placed on “inactive...
HPCSA disciplinaries from May to July 2022
Numerous counts of fraudulent medical aid claims and the selling of COVID certificates, inappropriate treatment of critically ill patients, a doctor who turned off...
Muslim pharmacist takes Life Entabeni Hospital to CCMA over dress code
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) held an arbitration hearing yesterday to decide whether Durban’s Life Entabeni Hospital acted unfairly towards a...
Archie Battersbee dies after parents lose legal battle over life support
Twelve-year-old Archie Battersbee, whose parents fought a long-running legal battle to prevent his life support treatment from being removed, died on Saturday when doctors...
HPCSA: Medics fined, suspended, and bogus doctors arrested
The Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has revealed that 55 people were arrested between 2021 and 2022 for either being bogus doctors...
Mkhize accuses SIU of delaying Digital Vibes probe
Deliberate delaying tactics by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) are stalling progress in the Digital Vibes probe, lawyers acting for former Health Minister Zweli...
Inquiry recommends urgent compensation for infected blood victims as death toll rises
The victims of Britain’s contaminated blood scandal should receive at least £100,000 in compensation each “without delay”, the chair of the inquiry examining the...
UK Supreme Court rejects bid to intervene in life-support battle for 12-year-old
In a massive blow to the parents of brain-damaged Archie Battersbee (12), Britain’s Supreme Court has turned down their application to intervene in a...
SIU to probe suspicious medical negligence claims
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been given the nod by President Cyril Ramaphosa to probe corruption and maladministration at national and provincial Health...
2 000 patients died from severe adverse events at Gauteng Hospitals last year
Nearly 2,000 patients died in Gauteng public hospitals last year from “severe adverse events” (SAEs), 1,105 of them being at Pretoria’s Kalafong Provincial Tertiary...
Amputee awaits compensation after court orders DoH to pay for negligence
A 48-year-old Pietermaritzburg man has been waiting two months for the KZN Department of Health to compensate him for medical negligence after an apparent...