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Medico-Legal
Culpable homicide charge added to surgeon Peter Beale’s murder/fraud case
An additional charge, this one of culpable homicide, has been added to the existing murder and fraud charges of paediatric surgeon Professor Peter Beale...
Life Esidimeni inquest: Judge rules on court’s right to steer proceedings
In the ongoing Life Esidimeni inquest to determine who should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of at least 144 mental patients transferred...
US manufacturer sued over fatal Netcare air-ambulance crash
The manufacturers of a Netcare aero ambulance helicopter, which crashed in January 2021 and killed all five occupants, must have been aware of a...
SADF returns Cuba’s R260m ’wonder drug’ to comply with SAHPRA order
South Africa’s National Defence Force (SANDF) has finally, two months after an order from the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), returned a supposed...
Limpopo Health chief and CFO charged over R125m PPE scandal
The SIU has laid criminal charges against the head of the Limpopo Health Department Dr Thokozani Mhlongo and Chief Financial Officer Justice Mudau for...
Windhoek doctor charged with illegal possession of wildlife
Windhoek doctor Daniel Jordaan, who is accused of illegally possessing leopards, cheetahs and baboons at his farm, was granted bail of N$100 000 (R100...
Presidency: SA’s Level One regulations relaxed
A special Cabinet meeting has relaxed the COVID-19 alert level one regulations, which will allow all schools to reopen for full-time learning. In addition,...
SIU report reveals massive scale of looting from COVID-relief funds
The Special Investigating Unit examined less than 10% of R152.5bn spent by the South African government between April 2020 and September 2021 on COVID-19...
Gauteng High Court overturns criminal record for breaking lockdown rules
A judgment this week in the Gauteng High Court identifies the danger of paying an admission of guilt fine for minor contravention of the...
Cerebral palsy causality: A quick fix to reduce medical negligence payouts
Because of the substantial number of cerebral palsy cases that feature in medical negligence claims, part of a quick fix to immediately reducing payouts...
AfriForum’s private prosecution unit grills former Gauteng Health deputy-director
At the ongoing inquest into the Life Esidemeni tragedy, last week (Thursday 20 January) Adv Phyllis Vorster, prosecutor at AfriForumʼs Private Prosecution Unit, cross-examined...
South African animal rights group punts cosmetics’ testing Bill
SA's animal rights organisation Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC), which advocated the ban on cosmetic animal testing years ago, said it is inspired by the...
US pharmaceutical company to pay $65m in opioid settlement
International pharmaceutical companies are facing an ongoing backlash through numerous lawsuits stemming from the opioid crisis. The latest is US drugmarker Endo International PLC,...
Hearing loss: Burden of proof on employer, not on the employee
A man who was medically boarded with hearing damage from being exposed to loud noise during his 39 years of work on the mines...
'Take-home' COVID: US firms fear precedent-setting court ruling
As COVID-19 cases surge in the United States, businesses say they fear a California court ruling has increased the chances of companies being sued...
UK surgeon struck off roll after ‘trademarking’ transplanted livers
An “arrogant” UK surgeon who got caught branding his initials on the transplant livers of his patients using an argon beam burner, has been...
No inspections or process followed, says ex-Life Esidimeni official
There were no proper procedures followed in the transfer of mental health patients from Life Esidimeni to inadequate NGOs, according to the sixth witness...
US inmates launch lawsuit after Ivermectin 'experiment' by prison medical staff
A lawsuit has been launched by a group of inmates at Washington County Detention Center in Arkansas, US, who say the jail’s medical staff...
SA business expects rise in court action on vaccine mandates in 2022
An escalation in legal action regarding mandatory vaccines is expected by South African business this year, which anticipates a rise in resistance from staff...
US Supreme Court says no to Biden's vaccine-or-test policy for big companies
America’s Supreme Court has blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but has given the green light...
Malawi High Court dismisses mandatory vaccine challenge by civil society group
A High Court in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe has dismissed an application by a civil society group aimed at stopping the government from implementing mandatory...
SA’s compulsory DNA sampling legislation ‘should also apply to convicted criminals’
While the proclamation of legislation to enforce compulsory DNA sampling of alleged offenders takes effect on 1 February, activists have said the same should...
Nurse in Italy caught faking shots, ditching vaccine, to enable fraudulent health passes
Italian police have arrested a nurse on charges that he faked giving coronavirus vaccinations to at least 45 people so they could get a...
Jailed US drug company boss barred for life, ordered to repay $64m
American Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical company executive who ordered dramatic price hikes of a lifesaving medicine, has been barred from the industry for...
SANDF medical students lose appeal for reinstatement after Cuban ‘mutiny’
A group of 35 SA Military Health Service personnel who went absent without leave (AWOL) during their Cuban medical training as doctors have lost...
B4SA prepares court papers for legal certainty on compulsory vaccines
Business for SA (B4SA), formed after the COVID-19 outbreak to assist the government with policy responses, said on Monday (10 January) it is pushing...
New vaping rules and taxes planned for South Africa
The National Treasury in South Africa has published a discussion paper outlining a proposal on the taxation of electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems...
Colombian woman dies by euthanasia after historic legal battle
A 51-year-old Colombian woman died by euthanasia on Saturday (8 January) after a historic legal battle to exercise the right in this majority-Catholic country.
The...
Chequered history of Ivermectin rulings in US court state courts
US courts have in the past year ruled on a number of lawsuits regarding treatment with Ivermectin for hospitalised COVID-19 patients, reports MedPage Today.
MedPage...
Federal court bars Pentagon from punishing vaccine refusers
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the US Department of Defence from punishing a group of Navy SEALs and other special forces...
Founder of blood-test startup convicted of fraud
Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the US blood-testing company Theranos, has been convicted of defrauding investors after a months-long landmark trial in California.
Prosecutors said Holmes...
Medico-legal claims comment period extended by SALRC
The return date for comment on Discussion Paper 154 on Project 141: Medico-legal Claims, has been extended, says the SA Law Reform Commission.
As reported...
South Africa’s overseas-trained doctors no longer to do training year
South African doctors trained abroad will now be allowed to sit local entry exams without needing to complete a conversion year of clinical training,...
Medicolegal claims double to R74bn and fuel an exodus of specialists
Medicolegal claims against the State have doubled from R37bn in 2016 to R74bn in 2020/21, reports Financial Mail. In obstetrics, gynaecology and neurosurgery, annual...
US medical boards oppose legislation on disciplining doctors
The number of US doctors spreading disinformation or inaccurate facts about COVID-19 and its treatment is increasing, but few have been disciplined by their...
Founder of ‘breakthrough’ blood-testing technology gives evidence
Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of now-defunct “breakthrough” US blood testing company, Theranos, concluded her testimony in her fraud trial.
Holmes, 37, faces nine counts...
US Supreme Court again rejects religious challenge to vaccine mandate
The US Supreme Court has rejected challenges to the New York state mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19. The legal challenge was...
UK quarantine: Out-of-pocket travellers to SA take government to court
The UK government is being taken to court by angry returning travellers from southern Africa over a “fundamental breach of human rights” and the...
Clicks Group’s SCA wins appeal over ICPA complaint on pharmacies
The Supreme Court of Appeal has granted the appeal by the Clicks Group against a decision of the Western Cape High Court that had...
New CPD guidelines from AHPCSA for complementary medicine practitioners
The Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA): guidelines for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for acupuncture, aromatherapy, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, chiropractic,...