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Medico-Legal
Zimbabwe doctors ignore court ruling to return to work
Government-employed doctors have ignored a Labour Court ultimatum to return to work, saying they remain incapacitated by poor wages and inadequate health facilities. According...
HPCSA vs anti-abortion doctor: Defence wants charges dropped
Anti-abortionist Dr Jaques de Vos’s medical career has been stalled for more than two years because of a repeatedly delayed disciplinary action by the...
Ministers claim courts used to thwart private healthcare oversight
The ministers of Health and Economic Development hit back at Health Market Inquiry findings blaming the government for “inadequate stewardship” of the private sector...
Genesis will pay — for now — in dispute over rehab as a PMB
The Genesis Medical Scheme has agreed to authorise and pay the rehabilitation costs of burn survivor Kelvin van Baalen pending the outcome of a...
$8bn punitive damages award for man's enlarged breasts
US drug firm Johnson & Johnson has been told to pay $8bn in punitive damages to a man over claims he was not warned...
US judge rules in favour of supervised injection sites
A US federal judge has ruled that a non-profit group’s bid to open a site in Philadelphia where people can inject drugs under medical...
US Supreme Court to decide on major abortion case
The US Supreme Court has agreed to take up a major abortion case that could lead to new curbs on access to the procedure...
Fertility clinic challenges proposed reproductive law changes
The Pietermaritzburg Fertility Clinic and three of its doctors have tried to stop specific definitions in a draft regulation by Health Minister Dr Zweli...
Ramaphosa's 'wake-up' to R22bn in health corruption
President Cyril Ramaphosa said he got a “wake-up call” during the recent election campaigning when he discovered how many of the billions of rands...
Attacker of University of Free State female doctor committed
A 30-year-old man who lost a piece of his tongue – allegedly when attacking a young female University of Free State medical intern at...
Nurse's 'misconduct' written warning following baby's death
A nurse involved in what Limpopo Health described as the 'truly unacceptable' death of a baby, who fell on his head while the mother...
HPCSA fails to meet the document deadline in De Vos case
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) has been accused of failing to meet the deadline to provide documentation to the legal team of...
R3m suit over botched gender reassignment op at JHB hospital
The transgender manager of a hardware store is claiming R3m from Gauteng Health after a complication of a gender reassignment operation meant to...
Determining damages in medical malpractice claims
A recent medico-legal claim against a Gauteng hospital and one of its doctors delivered the unusual result of the plaintiff being awarded higher damages...
US opioid crisis: Doctor faces life in prison for over-prescribing
US physician Dr Joel Smithers, a 36-year-old married father of five, is facing the possibility of life in prison after being convicted in May...
'No evidence' for prosecution but NPA refers Life Esidimeni dockets for inquest
Three years after the Life Esidimeni tragedy, the families of the victims will now have to wait even longer to get any closure, following...
Delayed discipline for workers who trashed Joburg Hospital
A shortage of labour relations officers has been blamed for the long delay in disciplining workers who trashed the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital in...
Landmark weight-loss pill scandal trial starts in France
A landmark trial over one of France’s biggest healthcare scandals has begun after a weight-loss pill was believed to have killed up to 2,000...
German court rules hangovers are an 'illness'
A firm claimed to have an anti-hangover concoction, but a German court says this is unlawful, food supplements cannot claim to treat a sickness.
A...
Western Cape takes 13-year battle over doctors' allowances to ConCourt
Western Cape Health has appealed to the Constitutional Court to overturn a Labour Court victory of 50 doctors that forced the department to pay...
Gauteng court action over foetus burial vs medical waste
At what point should a foetus be legally considered human? That issue will come before the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in November when an...
PE doctor to court over social media sexual assault claims
Allegations of patients being fondled in a doctor’s rooms, sexually charged remarks and unwanted kissing have been made on social media against a Port...
Ethically complex case potentially links children's autism to sperm donor
Danielle Rizzo’s young children are at the centre of one of the most ethically complex legal cases in the modern-day fertility industry, writes ...
Demands for change to UK laws on restaurant labelling of allergens
The family of a UK teenager who died after eating a birthday meal at a burger chain have demanded a change in the law...
US teen sues e-cigarette makers for severe lung damage
A recently hospitalised Chicago teen is suing the makers of an e-cigarette he used as well as the place where he got it from,...
UK court to decide family's right to see treatment abroad for their child
A UK court will decide whether the family of a child who suffered a traumatic brain injury will be allowed to seek treatment in Italy, against the...
NHI Bill set to worsen SA’s medico-legal nightmare — experts
As provincial health departments try to claw back a R98bn national medico-legal bill, and amid doctor alarm over warnings that they could be held...
Date-rape doctor gets suspended sanctions for sexual assault on nurse
A Cape Town doctor who sexually assaulted a colleague after giving her a date-rape drug has been given a five-year suspended sentence by the...
Former CEO wins 5-year saga against Selfmed – and keeps R1.3m
After a five-year legal battle between the medical scheme Selfmed and its former CEO, a Cape high court judge this week ruled in favour...
Graca Machel's bid before HPCSA to silence Mandela's former doctor
Nelson Mandela’s widow Graça Machel is trying to prevent his former doctor from revealing sensitive information about the icon’s final years, reports the Weekend Argus....
Chilling details of PE doctor’s shooting of doctor wife
As his estranged wife lay bleeding on the floor of their luxury Summerstrand home, a bullet lodged in her jaw, Port Elizabeth doctor Mkhuseli Boto...
Landmark ConCourt application on soaring claims
Eastern Cape Health is to approach the Constitutional Court for a ruling on whether it should pay multi-billion-rand medico-legal claims at the expense of...
NHI Bill fails to address medico-legal claims — Dinnie
The NHI Bill is a 'lost opportunity' in that it fails to address how medico-legal claims, which will arise from centralised healthcare funding be budgeted...
State healthcare workers may be targeted to pay back negligence claims
Gauteng Health has warned employees it may recover some of the billions in damages claims it is facing from those responsible for the medical negligence,...
HPCSA hearing of doctor barred from practice over anti-abortion stance
The unprofessional conduct hearing by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) against an anti-abortion doctor had to be adjourned shortly after starting because...
Bloemfontein hospital worker found guilty of raping 12-year-old patient
A Bloemfontein hospital worker has been convicted of raping a 12-year-old patient who was incapacitated and unable to speak after suffering two strokes, Volksblad...
Doctor who lost his licence after 4 deaths may face further court action
The loved ones of David Sello’s victims plan to take legal action against the Potchefstroom-based doctor after the Health Professions Council of South Africa...
Suspended North West Health boss now arrested for fraud
Suspended North West Health boss Thabo Lekalakala has been arrested on fraud charges, reports News24. Lekalakala appeared in the Mmabatho Regional Court in Mahikeng...
Oklahoma judge rules J&J intentionally played down opioid dangers
A judge in Oklahoma has ruled that Johnson & Johnson had intentionally played down the dangers and oversold the benefits of opioids, and ordered...
Purdue Pharma offers to settle opioid lawsuits for up $12bn
The maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, and its owners, the Sackler family, are offering to settle more than 2,000 lawsuits against the company for...