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Medico-Legal
12 SANDF doctors acquitted for 'disobeying' WhatsApp orders
Twelve military doctors who ‘disobeyed’ a WhatsApp message to be deployed on a COVID-19 mission to the Eastern Cape have been acquitted by the...
SA gazettes vaccine compensation regulations despite outcry
South Africans who claim from the COVID-19 vaccine injury fund will give up rights to approach the courts to sue the government or health...
Suspended hospital CEO challenges Mkhize in court application
Tembisa Hospital CEO Dr Lekopane Mogaladi has hauled Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize to court in a bid to force him to appoint an...
3 patients ‘mutilated’ by surgeon in a week prompts NHS shake-up
The Royal College of Surgeons was called in to investigate a string of devastating injuries from routine surgery by the same surgeon about which...
Mkhize's former spokesperson in more bad Digital Vibes
Tahera Mather, a long-time associate and former personal spokesperson of Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, was at the centre of a dubious communications contract...
Durban Nurse lied about HIV infection to claim insurance payout
A Durban nurse who attempted to score on her R1m dread disease insurance cover by falsely claiming she acquired HIV while on duty, has...
Arrest and assault charge for Spanish man who knowingly spread COVID
A man has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of assault after allegedly infecting 22 people with COVID, reports BBC News.
The 40-year-old is alleged...
EC to sue AstraZenaca for under-delivery of vaccines
The European Commission is getting ready to launch legal proceedings against vaccine producer AstraZeneca. Politico reports that according to six EU diplomats, the EC...
AG warns urgent intervention needed to prevent provincial health collapse
South Africa's Auditor-General has warned that without urgent intervention, a number of provincial health services face collapse, writes MedicalBrief. Outstanding medico-legal claims amount to...
Cape Town surgeon 'pays' for tax submission failures with ops
A Cape Town orthopaedic surgeon who for nine years failed to submit his company income tax returns had charges withdrawn after he completed a...
Charlotte Maxeke workers disciplined for human rights violations
The Gauteng Health Department has handed two-month suspensions and final written warnings to 40 employees of the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital for actions...
No-fault compensation fund rules released for 'rushed' comment
The regulations on the government's proposed Covid-19 vaccine injury no-fault compensation scheme were posted on the Department of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs website...
ANC's chief whip to answer for son's 'regrettable' PPE deal
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina has said she is willing to subject herself to Parliament’s Ethics Committee to explain her son’s involvement in a...
COVID-status certificates may be discriminatory — UK rights watchdog
COVID-status certificates being considered by the UK to help open up society could amount to unlawful indirect discrimination, the UK government’s independent equalities watchdog...
Pretoria sperm donor's quest to access son — SA first
Judgment was reserved in an application launched by a sperm donor to have access to his biological son after the child’s biological mother and...
Gauteng Health MEC appeals party's 'disrepute' finding
Former Gauteng Health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku said he is appealing against a finding by an ANC disciplinary committee that he had brought the...
Testimony of UCT-trained doctor in Chauvin trial challenged
On day 14 of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in the US, the prosecution rested its case, with the former policeman invoking his...
US trial of opioid drug makers' starts over 500,000 overdose deaths
Four drugmakers, including Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd have gone to trial over claims they helped fuel an opioid crisis that...
Hate speech tweet by Durban 'doctor'
A racist tweet by a Durban person could see them in hot water after a Durban civic association sought to lay criminal charges for...
Life Esidimeni inquest date announced
The formal inquest hearing into Life Esidimeni is due to start on July 19 in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria).
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)...
Dates of COIDA Amendment Bill public hearings
The Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour is set to hear verbal submissions related to the COIDA Amendment Bill. The committee will hear from...
ConCourt confirms alternative compensation remedy for negligence
The Constitutional Court has ruled that South African courts will now be able to consider ordering alternative compensation – instead of a lump-sum payment...
Pretoria sperm donor father seeks resumption of parental rights
A sperm donor, supported by his mother, is heading to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in the first part of their legal bid to...
Fired Gauteng Health MEC fails to overturn SIU report on COVID deals
Former Gauteng Health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku has lost his bid to overturn a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report that led to his sacking...
European Court of Human Rights: Mandatory child vaccinations legal
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has issued judgment that mandatory vaccinations of children under the Czech Republic’s health policy do not violate...
Medical opinion: Lack of oxygen not fentanyl cause of Floyd's death
George Floyd died from a lack of oxygen during his arrest, a doctor at the trial of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis has...
End of 'Global Gag Rule' improves Uganda's abortion policy prospects
US President Joe Biden last month reversed the so-called “Global Gag Rule”, a 2017 executive order by former president Donald Trump. The rule revived...
KeyHealth offered brokers incentives to sign younger members
KeyHealth allegedly contravened the Medical Schemes Act through a financial incentive scheme for brokers to sign up younger members, it emerged in the court...
ActionSA takes up mother's COPD death following power cut
ActionSA president Herman Mashaba wants the eThekwini municipality to be charged for the death of a Newlands mother, after her oxygen machine could not...
Ekurhuleni hospital allegedly gave mother wrong baby to bury
The Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality is the latest authority to find itself caught up in the saga of a baby exhumation for DNA testing. This,...
'Insensitive and disrespectful' to treat dead foetus as 'medical waste'
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has declared sections of the Births and Deaths Registration Act (BDRA) – which deems a foetus of less...
HPCSA disciplinary findings — January and February 2021
A doctor who prevented his colleagues from performing their hospital duties during an illegal strike and an occupational therapist fined R150,000 for falsifying documents...
Protector finds Bara staff negligent over missing corpse
Maladministration and improper conduct on the part of Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital staff were responsible for the disappearance of a corpse in 2013,...
Delayed treatment of broken ankle costs Limpopo Health R4.8m
The Limpopo Health MEC has been ordered by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), to pay R4.8m in damages to a truck driver who needed...
Eastern Cape blames negligence payouts for failure to fill specialist posts
Most specialist posts at two of the Eastern Cape’s biggest hospitals remain vacant after the provincial health department failed to fill them. According to...
Leading UK neurosurgeon with advanced cancer wants assisted dying inquiry
Henry Marsh, one of the UK’s leading neurosurgeons and a bestselling author, has called for an urgent inquiry into assisted dying after revealing he...
‘Payment in kind’ ruling will now head to SCA
The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal over the "public healthcare defence", which mandates ongoing...
Pretoria gynaecologist not liable for failure to detect Down syndrome
A full Bench of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has refused to hold a gynaecologist liable for not detecting Down syndrome during the pregnancy...
Servier guilty of manslaughter and deceit over diabetes drug Mediator
French pharmaceutical Servier Laboratories has been found guilty of aggravated deceit and involuntary manslaughter and ordered to pay hundreds of millions of euros in...
Military union threatens litigation over SANDF's vaccination failure
The National Defence Union (SANDU) is threatening litigation against the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to ensure speedy vaccines for its health workers,...