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Medico-Legal
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...
Brain-injured rugby players lodge class action against global unions
Former Wales rugby captain Ryan Jones last week announced he has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable CTE – the latest of...
Appeals tribunal ruling in doctor in transgenderism case
In October 2019, writes Wrigley Solicitors in Mondaq, we reported on the Employment Tribunal’s decision in the case of Dr David Mackereth, a doctor...
Man who cut wife’s throat in ‘act of love’ calls for assisted dying law
A British man has called for a law change to allow assisted dying after pleading guilty for cutting his terminally ill wife’s throat in...
NHS compensation claims bill escalates, but more cases resolved outside court
Spending on claims by the NHS' dispute-handling body rose to £2.5bn last year, a climb from £2.3bn in 2020/21, despite initiatives to slash the...
Hundreds of Latin American fruit workers blame pesticide for sterility
A pesticide used by US companies on plantations in Latin America has been blamed for making tens of thousands of former banana workers sterile.
The...
Health Department official resigns over Digital Vibes, colleagues demoted
The dodgy R150m Digital Vibes communications tender, which led to the resignation of former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and more recently, the demotion of...
Afriforum to legally challenge HPCSA delay of 12,000 registration certificates
AfriForum Youth plans to lodge a mandamus application to compel the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) to process the applications of medical...
HPCSA, DoH threatened with legal action over foreign-trained doctors' placement
The Health Professions Council of South Africa's (HPCSA) handling of internship appointments has again been slammed, and legal action threatened, in letters sent last...
Phaahla claims 'legal privilege' over incriminating emails
Health Minister Joe Phaahla is claiming “legal privilege” for emails from legal advisers that have landed in the hands of his opponents in a...
Demotions ‘a slap on the wrist’ for top officials implicated in Digital Vibes scandal
Two Department of Health top officials have been demoted for a year for their roles in the Digital Vibes communications contract scandal that sank...
Court orders life support switch-off for Archie Battersbee (12)
A 12-year-old boy with brain damage should be taken off life support, a British High Court has ruled, after specialists said they do not...
Medical expert witnesses ‘should not scapegoat doctors’, says MPS
Medical experts in cases involving doctors should have a mandatory duty to consider systems issues such as inadequate staffing levels to avoid them being...
US doctor threatens defamation suit over 10-year-old’s abortion case
In a case demonstrating the potential fallout of America’s recent overturning of the controversial Roe v Wade ruling, a doctor who performed an abortion...
Controversial weed-killing chemical found in most US urine samples
A US Government study has found that a widely used but controversial herbicide linked to cancer is showing up in a number of people,...
Cosatu challenge to ‘polarising’ workplace vaccination heads for national level
Cosatu plans to challenge mandatory COVID-19 vaccination at a “national, policy level” and wants workers who have been dismissed for non-compliance to be reinstated.
Matthew...
UK patient dies after procedure by octogenarian doctor who lied about age
An 81-year-old Nigerian doctor in the UK, who lied about his age to keep his job, has been jailed for three years after killing...