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Medico-Legal
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,...
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.
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