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Medico-Legal
Gauteng Health found liable for rugby player's death
The High Court (Pretoria) has ruled that Gauteng Health is to pay damages following the death of local rugby league player Zacharius Johannes de Lange’s...
Jury awards $2bn in another verdict against Monsanto
A California jury has awarded a couple more than $2bn in a verdict against Monsanto, a subsidiary of Bayer. According to a NPR report,...
SA policies on medical treatment for aliens again face court scrutiny
An Ethiopian asylum seeker who was after three months of treatment denied dialysis at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg because she lacks the "appropriate" documentation,...
US drug company head found guilty of fuelling the opioid epidemic
The head of a leading US drug manufacturer has been found guilty of bribing doctors to prescribe a dangerous painkiller to patients who did...
Inquiry: Infected blood given to UK patients after safe-date cutoff?
Contaminated blood may have been given to National Health Service (NHS) patient in the UK after the date when transfusions were supposed to have...
KZN medical waste company fails to stop award of rival contractor
A medical waste company that has been the sole medical waste service provider in KwaZulu-Natal for the past 20 years has failed in its...
R20m claim for retinopathy of prematurity
The parents of a girl – now aged nine – are claiming more than R20m in damages from the Gauteng Health Department after the...
HPCSA to appeal over 'serious implications' of Basson recusal judgment
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) is expected to apply for leave to appeal a judgment recusing two of its members from the...
Parents sue Durban private hospital over alleged sexual assault in casualty
The parents of a teenage girl are suing a Durban private hospital, alleging that she was sexually assaulted by a male nurse in the...
Doctor who defrauded Bonitas is now on the run
The Hawks are looking for a medical doctor from Mpumalanga who allegedly failed to pay a compensatory fine of R185,000 to Bonitas Medical Aid...
Lenient suspension of Aussie doctor over rape comments questioned
The health district in Australia responsible for the hospital which employs an emergency doctor who said “some women deserve to be raped” has ordered...
Gynaecologist’s jail sentence for negligence a worrying precedent — SASOG
The SA Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has "noted with significant concern" a High Court judgment that upheld the sentence of of five years direct...
Tiger Brands readied for 'big and nasty' fight over listeriosis class action
More than a year after South Africa’s largest food producer Tiger Brands recalled its ready-to-eat processed meat products and closed its production facilities over...
HPCSA to appeal High Court judgment on Dr Death
A crushing defeat suffered by the Health Professions Council of SA after years of attempts to take disciplinary action against apartheid-era doctor Wouter Basson,...
Gauteng Health sued over medicine overdose patient 'left to die'
Gauteng Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa is facing a R9.4m damages claim following the death of a Clubview man who had allegedly overdosed on...
Medical waste company sues KZN Health over termination of contract
A medical waste company has hauled KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo to court over the termination of a multimillion-rand contract to dispose of body...
Gilead faces personal injury suit for not rectifying HIV-drug's alleged defect
Forty-one patients from 12 states in the US who are living with HIV or Aids or were on PrEP have filed a personal injury...
US files first criminal charges against pharma in opioid epidemic case
The US government filed its first criminal charges against a major drug distributor and company executives over their alleged roles in fuelling the nation’s...
High Court rejects gynae's appeal against 5-years' jail for deadly negligence
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has confirmed the conviction and sentence of five years direct imprisonment for Dr Danie van der Walt, a gynaecologist...
Mother turns to HRC over marking system after son fails Wits medicine
A mother has gone to the Human Rights Commission in a bid to keep her son in medical school at the University of the...
Limpopo GP sued over incorrect HIV diagnosis
The GP firm PM de Kock and Partners in Thabazimbi is being sued for R478,000, for negligence, after allegedly incorrectly diagnosinga patient with HIV.
Beeld...
KZN Health dilemma as suspended doctor returns to post that's been filled
KwaZulu-Natal Health appears to be heading for another legal showdown when the head of surgery from the strife-torn Ngwelezana Hospital returns to his job, which...
Bayer takes more legal hits over weedkiller products linked to illnesses
Bayer, which acquired Monsanto last year, has had a another US court setback over its Roundup weed killer, while in France a decade-long legal...
Publicly identifying someone as living with HIV/Aids can still incur damages
Despite the de-stigmatising of HIV/Aids, publicly to identify a person as living with the conditional can still incur damages for "emotional and psychological distress",...
HPCSA finding placing PE heart surgeon under supervision is set aside
A finding by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) that a Port Elizabeth heart surgeon should be allowed to work only under supervision...
Health Dept must pay after botched circumcision leaves man 'stressed'
South Africa’s Health Department has to pay a Kosi Bay man more than R500,000 after a botched circumcision left him emotionally and psychologically stressed....
Women sue hospital over hidden cameras in gynae operating theatres
More than 80 women recently filed a lawsuit against Sharp Grossmont Hospital in San Diego, California when they discovered they “were secretly recorded by...
'Common sense' judgment by SCA on settlement agreements
This month's judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal that settlement agreements of a medico-legal damages claim would not fall within the ambit of the National...
Generalists who stretch the HPCSA definition of being a specialist
The law is clear on when you can call yourself a specialist. It's not about being highly experienced or working only in a specialises...
Psychiatrist guilty of unprofessional conduct for using outdated diagnostic scale
A Johannesburg child psychiatrist who has written a book about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been fined R40,000 by the Health Professionals Council of...
SCA dismisses patient's appeal over informed consent
A North West surgeon has been vindicated by a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling, which dismissed a patient’s legal challenge that he did...
HPCSA's 'comedy of errors' in disciplinary pursuit of Dr Death
In another victory for cardiologist Dr Wouter Basson, head of the apartheid government’s chemical and biological warfare project and dubbed Dr Death by the...
Application for disciplinary proceedings against hospital owner dismissed
An application against the medical doctor owner of a KwaZulu-Natal hospital and seven others, as well as against the Health Professions Council of SA,...
Former KZN Health spokesperson in court for qualifications fraud
Former KwaZulu-Natal Health spokesperson Leon Abednigo Mbangwa is expected to appear in the Durban Specialised Commercial Court again on charges of qualifications fraud, reports...
UKZN gets court order to silence corrupt investigation claims
The University of Kwazulu-Natal has turned to the court to silence claims that those investigating the sale of places at its medical school were...
Western Cape Health wants 'judicial guidance’ on select committee powers
Western Cape Health has asked the Cape Town High Court to clarify the power of the National Council of Provinces select committee on petitions,...
Application to halt HPCSA ban on diagnostic radiographers doing ultrasounds
The Radiological Society of South Africa has asked the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, to halt a decision that diagnostic radiographers registered after 1...
KZN wants oncology maintenance contract set aside and R9m repayment
KwaZulu-Natal Health wants set aside an 'illegal' contract with a company to repair and maintain its oncology machines, as well as repayment of R9m.
The...
Gauteng Health sued over 'get up and walk' man's spinal injuries
Gauteng Health is facing a multimillion-rand damages claim after doctors told a car accident victim home to 'get up and walk home', not realising...
Legal challenge to UK's 10-year limit on egg freezing
A woman who is fighting for her chance to start a family is bringing the first legal challenge in the UK against fertility legislation...