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Medico-Legal
Life Esidimeni inquest: ‘He vomited for four weeks and then he starved to death’
Jaco Stols, one of the 144 victims of the Life Esidimeni tragedy, vomited continuously for four weeks before dying of hunger and thirst, said...
No KZN companies blacklisted despite SIU findings of PPE fraud
None of the close to 100 companies implicated in PPE corruption by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been blacklisted by the KZN government...
Nigeria’s anti-tobacco law remains ungazetted after 7 years
Seven years after the ban on tobacco smoking in public places was signed into law by Nigeria’s former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Act has...
Health activists seek access to SA's confidential vaccine supply agreements
The Health Justice Initiative (HJI) has filed a motion in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) demanding the confidential commercial details around South Africa’s COVID-19...
Parliamentary anger over 1 Military Hospital’s R60m ’renovations’
Parliamentarians are “shocked and seething” that despite the millions spent to “renovate” 1 Military Hospital over the past two decades, the institution is still...
HPCSA does U-turn on rejecting intern’s Afrikaans degree certificate
After civil rights organisation AfriForum stepped in to assist a psychology student with legal action against the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)...
EC doctor arrested and charged in connection with R18m in RAF claims
A medical doctor in Mbizana has been arrested and charged with fraud relating to R18m in claims made against the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
The...
Ecuador to allow rape victims access to abortions
Ecuadorian legislators have approved regulations to allow women and girls access to abortions in cases of rape, after a Constitutional Court ruling that decriminalised...
Britain launches ‘menopause taskforce’ to tackle workplace taboos
A new specialist team of ministers and medical experts will tackle taboos and stigmas surrounding menopause in the workplace, the UK government has announced.
According...
HPCSA disciplinaries: Exploitative relationships in therapy, bad investment advice, and mismanaged bleeding
A psychologist who entered into an “exploitative relationship” with clients, a doctor who encouraged patients to invest in a failing company, and failure to resuscitate...
Life Esidimeni inquiry: NGO had grown men sleeping in baby cots
Adult mental healthcare patients slept in children’s cots at an NGO to which they were moved after their removal from Life Esidimeni, heard the...
Refugees and asylum-seekers have ‘constitutional right’ to NHI care
The argument that National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill discriminates against the constitutional rights of asylum seekers' and refugees' access to healthcare services, found a...
SAHPRA refuses to release documents relating to Pfizer approval
The special appeals committee hearings into COVID-19 vaccines for children ground to a halt when the parties fought over the health regulator's SAHPRA’s decision...
El Salvador releases woman jailed for 10 years after miscarriage
El Salvador has released another woman imprisoned for aggravated homicide who, after suffering an obstetric emergency, was accused of aborting her pregnancy in a...
Public Protector investigates DNA backlog at SAPS forensic labs
The unacceptable delays and the handling of the massive DNA backlog at the national SAPS Forensic Science Laboratories are being investigated by the Office...
Mkhize again in court to challenge SIU on tender award findings
Former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is taking his fight against his dismissal straight to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s door, writes City Press.
Mkhize was axed after...
Botswana: Vaccination booths at borders and harsh penalties for non-vaccination
Returning Botswana citizens or visitors unwilling to get a COVID-19 vaccination, face a fine of R6,500 (Pula 5,000), a year in jail, or both.
Vaccination...
Rhodes University’s mandatory jab policy challenged in court
A group of Rhodes University students and employees are challenging in court the university’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy.
A Daily Dispatch report says the newly-formed...
Anti-abortion doctor asks High Court to order HPCSA to hold his disciplinary hearing
A doctor, who five years ago allegedly tried to dissuade a woman from an abortion, has asked the High Court to compel the Health...
SCA upholds listeriosis subpoena appeal against Tiger Brands
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has upheld an appeal by commercial pathology laboratory Deltamune and others relating to the validity and enforceability of...
Legal fee capping for medical negligence claims – UK government
A UK government plan to launch a consultation tackling “increasing and disproportionate legal fees” for lower value medical clinical negligence claims has been criticised...
Dozens of former Life Esidimeni patients remain missing
Almost 60 former Life Esidimeni patients are still missing after the botched move of more than 1,000 patients from its psychiatric facilities to ill-equipped,...
Accused paediatric surgeon Dr Peter Beale struck from HPCSA register
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) has confirmed that paediatric surgeon Professor Peter Beale, accused of being responsible for the deaths of two...
Public mask-wearing remains compulsory, warns Health minister
Wearing a mask in public is still mandatory under level one lockdown regulations, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said last Friday (4 February). Any person...
Vaccine workplace dismissals: CCMA confirms 117 disputes lodged
Only two of 117 mandatory vaccination disputes lodged with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) have been arbitrated so far, reports City...
Fresh calls to lift State of Disaster and legal challenge from Sakeliga
Sakeliga, a lobby group largely representing the interests of Afrikaans business owners, has become the latest organisation to launch a legal challenge against the...
Solidarity’s urgent application to stop vaccine mandate dismissed by Labour Court
An urgent application by trade union Solidarity challenging a Pretoria company’s policy on mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations was struck off the Labour Court roll in...
Phaahla appoints appeal committee to adjudicate on vaccines for adolescents
Health Minister Joe Phaahla has appointed a five-member committee to adjudicate a challenge to the COVID-19 vaccination of adolescents aged 12 to 17, reports...
SAPS officers in court over PPE corruption
South African Police Service (SAPS) members were among 15 people making their first appearance in the Palm Ridge Specialised Crimes Court court on Tuesday...
Mpumalanga Health under investigation by Special Investigating Unit
Following a proclamation signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been given the go-ahead to investigate allegations of corruption at...
PPE wastage: Tribunal orders profit seizure and reimbursement by officials
In a landmark decision, the Special Tribunal has ordered that companies that supplied substandard surgical gowns to Free State Health must have their profits...
US doctor accused of killing 14 patients – experts cite ‘flawed’ hospital system
A US doctor, due in court for the murder of 14 patients, and who was described as hard-working and popular with nurses and hospital...
Gqeberha obs/gynae’s R4.5m settlement over mother’s injuries
A Gqeberha gynaecologist and obstetrician has made an out-of-court R4,5m settlement to a woman left permanently disfigured after injuries during childbirth, reports The Herald....
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,...