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Medico-Legal
SIU cracks down on fraudulent Eastern Cape medico-legal claims
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which is conducting a review of all Eastern Cape provincial medico-legal claims and cracking down on crooked lawyers behind...
New medics to clear airline staff after dodgy certificate scandal
The SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has appointed 83 new doctors to conduct new tests for dozens of aviation employers who were allegedly issued...
Officials admit they didn’t act, Lucy Letby inquiry hears
Leading British officials have conceded that they failed to act timeously or make known their initial concerns and suspicions about killer nurse Lucy Letby,...
Yale settles with patients who sued over painful egg retrievals
Yale University in the US agreed this week to pay dozens of patients who had filed lawsuits claiming that they had endured excruciatingly painful...
UK hospital reviews cases of 700 children treated by orthopaedic surgeon
London’s well-known Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is overseeing an urgent review of the cases of more than 700 patients after concerns were raised...
Headache Clinic founder suspended after patient deaths
Headache specialist Dr Elliot Shevel (81), who has won international renown for his techniques in helping patients overcome head pains – and has also...
Judge directs HPCSA to probe ‘poor quality’ of doctor’s rape report
A doctor whose “apparent lack of professional conduct” nearly sank the state’s case against two rapists may face a probe by the Health Professions...
Women sues after weight-loss drugs lead to bowel surgery
An American woman is suing Novo Nordisk after having to undergo drastic emergency surgery, claiming labels on its weight loss drugs do not adequately...
Price of lifesaving drug deliberately hiked – UK court
British taxpayers were forced to pay millions of pounds for a lifesaving drug after a pharmaceutical company deliberately inflated the cost, pushing it up...
Hospital sued after nurse swops IV fentanyl for water
Attorneys representing both living and deceased patients of an Oregon, USA, hospital have filed a $303m lawsuit against the facility after a nurse was...
J&J ups talc settlement offer
Johnson & Johnson is digging ever deeper into its coffers, planning to pay an additional $1.1bn to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its...
Experts call for deeper probe into baby killer nurse case
More than 20 experts have called on the British Government to delay a public inquiry into the case of former neonatal nurse and convicted...
Dentist guilty of culpable homicide after patient's overdose
A Durban dentist who was found guilty of culpable homicide after the death of a man at his “rehabilitation centre” has protested his innocence,...
Pretoria midwife faces another baby brain damage claim
More allegations have been added to the raft of charges against a former Pretoria midwife, with another couple now alleging that their child’s severe...
Lawsuits take on fish oil supplement over heart health claims
Lawsuits in the US are challenging claims by fish oil supplement companies that their products support heart health, suggesting that instead, the opposite might...
Australian IVF firm pays $56m for destroyed embryos
After a four-year legal tussle, Australian company Monash IVF has reached a $56m no admission of liability settlement with more than 700 former patients for destroying...
Court victory, payout, for vaginal mesh victims in England
More than 100 British women who suffered excruciating pain and complications from transvaginal mesh implants – some left unable to walk or work –...
Minister targets dodgy lawyers as SIU probes R30bn medico-legal claims
Unscrupulous lawyers, often in collusion with healthcare practitioners, who have lodged multi-billion rand fraudulent medico-legal claims against the Health Department, are now being offered...
Fines and suspensions handed down in HPCSA disciplinaries
Healthcare practitioners stealing from medical schemes by claiming for fictitious treatments is a regular complaint heard by the Health Professions Council of SA, as...
Eastern Cape slashes medico-legal claims but still in the red
The Eastern Cape Government’s integrated medico-legal strategy, introduced in 2023, has resulted in a 65% drop in new claims, saving millions of rands –...
Nurse reinstated, paid R1m after rape accusations
After being fired for allegedly raping a mental health patient twice, a male nurse will now be reinstated by the North West Department of...
US doctors lose licences over Covid misinformation
The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has revoked the board certification of two physicians involved in the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance...
Routine hernia op leads to seven more surgeries for pastor
A Johannesburg pastor has launched an official complaint saying she endured an agonising series of complications after a routine hernia repair at a government...
UK medics at work despite sexual assault, rape allegations
Hundreds of British doctors and nurses are still practising despite being accused of serious sexual assault and rape in the past six years.
General Medical...
J&J claimants vote for $6.5bn settlement
Johnson & Johnson has apparently cleared a key threshold of support for its proposed $6.5bn settlement of tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby...
SA woman drops case against US firm for cystic fibrosis drug
Johannesburg investment banker Cheri Nel has dropped a potentially landmark court case against Vertex Pharmaceutical in which she sought to secure access to lifesaving...
Addict mother fails in legal bid to control child’s treatment
The Gauteng High Court has ordered that a four-year-old boy, currently in foster care and who has various conditions resulting from in-utero drug exposure,...
Dickason plans to appeal child murder convictions
Lauren Dickason, the South African doctor who was sentenced to an effective 18 years in June for murdering her three children, intends appealing her...
GSK wins latest case over Zantac cancer claims
A US jury found this week that pharma giant GSK was not responsible for an Illinois woman’s illness – a triumph for the company...
New lawsuits over ‘HeLa’ cell misuse claims
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis and US drugmaker Viatris were hit with a federal lawsuit in Maryland, USA, this week by the family of a...
Formal inquiry after children’s dental visit deaths
The HPCSA has subpoenaed a dental practitioner to attend a formal inquiry in September, where her “professional conduct” will be questioned relating to two...
Pretoria midwife faces multiple assault charges
A former Pretoria midwife appeared briefly in court last week facing a barrage of assault charges after years of malpractice allegations related to her...
Euthanasia activist Davidson arrested again
SA euthanasia activist Sean Davison has been arrested in London for assisting a terminally-ill patient to die.
According to Netwerk24, Davison had accompanied a 79-year-old English...
Puberty blockers ban lawful, rules UK High Court
A British judge has rejected challenges to emergency legislation introduced under the previous Health Secretary, ruling that the ban on prescribing puberty blockers to...
Australian judge dismisses Roundup class action cancer suit
A class action lawsuit claiming Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller can cause lymphoma has been dismissed by an Australian judge, a ruling the company said it...
Gauteng Health to fork out R1m for botched knee surgery
Gauteng’s Department of Health is mired in a sea of negligence claims, having paid out R623m for the first nine months of the 2023/24...
Gauteng Health accuses Cancer Alliance of interference as case postponed
The Gauteng Health Department has hit back, in court papers, against claims that it has failed to spend millions of rands of cancer funding,...
Wrong heart monitor data leads to unnecessary surgery for woman
A US woman is suing a medical device manufacturer, alleging her heart monitor provided her doctors with data from a different patient, leading to...
Netcare failed to protect employee against abusive surgeon, court finds
The former manager of an operating theatre at the Free State Universitas Hospital has successfully sued Netcare for failing to protect her and take...
Probe into child’s death after tooth extraction
The Free State Department of Health has launched an investigation into the death of a four-year-old girl, who died after having a tooth pulled...