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Medico-Legal
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...
Western Cape Health reversal over ‘theft’ of broken chairs
In the face of widespread public disbelief and criticism, a Western Cape Health internal review has hastily reversed the findings of a disciplinary panel...
SIU starts clawing back money paid to Esidimeni NGOs
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) will recover more than R600,000 from two Gauteng Health service providers after a successful probe into the Life Esidimeni...
Doctors' careers destroyed for 'stealing' broken chairs
Western Cape Health, despite an acute and growing short of anaesthetists, has jeopardised the careers of three doctors with pristine academic and work records,...
Standing birth baby death at Mamelodi Hospital to be investigated
A newborn fell to his death at Mamelodi Hospital, east of Pretoria, after nurses allegedly refused to help his mother, who gave birth standing....
SCA displeasure over 'pervasively substandard' care in state hospitals
Despite a split decision dismissing an appeal regarding damages for a baby who suffered brain damage during birth, in an unusual move, five judges of the...
Tribunal blocked Mediclinic merger over higher rates
The Competition Tribunal revealed that part of its reasons for deciding to block Mediclinic’s takeover of Matlosana Medical Health Services (MMHS) because of up...
Listeriosis class action: Health inspector was refused access
During the listeriosis outbreak, a municipal health inspector was denied access to the Polokwane facility of Tiger Brands’ subsidiary, Consumer Brands – because he...
Health boss' bid for reinstatement dismissed
A former deputy director general at Mpumalanga Health, who claimed he was unfairly dismissed for authorising irregular expenditure, has lost his Labour Court bid...
Mother asks court for permission to lodge prescribed claim
A Midrand mother says only realised when her baby girl was six months old that the child suffered from cerebral palsy, allegedly due to...
Mediator denies Bayer is to pay out $8bn for Roundup claims
Bayer AG has not proposed paying $8bn to settle all US claims related to the Roundup herbicide, mediator Ken Feinberg is quoted in Reuters...
HPCSA revokes licence of Potch doctor after 3 deaths
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has found Dr David Sello of Potchefstroom, alleged to have caused three patient deaths, guilty on...
Gauteng wants legislation to reduce medical negligence costs
Gauteng Health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku wants a legislative framework that compels victims of medical negligence from the provincial healthcare system to be treated...
Nurse fired for injecting without written instruction is reinstated
A nurse who was dismissed in September last year for administering an injection to a patient without a written instruction from a doctor has...
Esidimeni families challenge compensation payment structure
Aggrieved relatives of Life Esidimeni survivors are threatening to take the Gauteng government to the Public Protector to force it to release the outstanding...
City of Johannesburg to pay out for medic's trauma
A landmark legal challenge will force the City of Johannesburg to provide adequate counselling and support services to medics and firefighters suffering from trauma.
Veteran...
Still no disciplinary action after staff trash Joburg hospital
There have been no arrests or disciplinary action against staff who downed tools and trashed Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital in a dispute over bonuses...
First legally assisted dying case in Australia
An Australian woman with terminal cancer has become the first person to end their life under new assisted dying laws, reports BBC News. Kerry...
US couples file lawsuits over 'worst ever' IVF mix-up
A California couple has filed a lawsuit over what has been described as one of the worst in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) mix-ups, that led to...
A world of difference between expert witness and hired gun
A medical expert is not an advocate or supporter of either the plaintiff or defendant – medical experts are required to present unbiased objective...
NHCPA's 'racial profiling' action thrown out in 2018, bounces back into CMS's lap
The National Health Care Professionals Association's crusade against 'racial profiling' took a blow when its court application against 19 medical schemes was thrown out of...
Law firms withdraw from defending Gauteng Health on negligence claims
Gauteng Health is in trouble after several service providers, mostly law firms, withdrew from defending lawsuits arising from alleged medical negligence. The department, which...
Punitive costs order against Denosa over 'meritless' urgent application
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) has been slapped with a cost order after trying to sue the office of the Gauteng...
Foreigner's health issues insufficient to halt deportation from the UK
In an landmark decision, the UK Appeal Court decision has ruled that the deportation of a Nigerian man with sickle cell disease would not...
Legality of using social media influencers to promote e-cigarettes
To evade tough laws on tobacco advertising, firms like Philip Morris have turned to social media influencers to promote their smoke-free products, reports Bhekisisa. A...
J&J lose bid to dismiss opioid crisis lawsuit in Okhlahoma
An ongoing lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson for its part in the opioid crisis will continue after the company's effort to have the case...
Gauteng Health stalls R5m claim over alleged baby swap
When a woman who found that the son she had raised for 16 years was not her biological child, it destroyed her marriage and...
Better data vital to reduce SA's medico-legal risk — SASA CEO
The paucity of patient outcome data in South Africa is a major hindrance to best-practice medicine, helping drive the tide of litigation against healthcare...