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Medico-Legal
Gauteng specialist gets suspended jail sentence for culpable homicide
A specialist physician has been sentenced to six years imprisonment – suspended for five years – for culpable homicide after he bungled a procedure...
Namibian ruling on registration has implications for expert witnesses
A Namibian court has ruled on whether a SA-registered psychologist also needs to be registered with the Social Work and Psychology Council of Namibia in order to testify as...
EMS regulations could curb 'fly-by-night' ambulance operators
The proposed implementation of the Emergency Medical Services Regulations 2017, which seeks to bring ‘stability’ to the sector, could be the answer to ‘fly-by-night’...
SA branch chief of the US Centres for Disease Control arrested for fraud
Zimbabwe-born US citizen and virologist Dr Alfred Bere, South African branch chief at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, was arrested by...
Submissions invited on medical negligence payments Bill
The State Liability Amendment Bill, aimed at reducing lump sum payments by medical schemes in medical negligence cases, has finally made its way to...
Pretoria audiologist gets 5-year prison for medical aid fraud
Audiologist and speech therapist Wandile Theophilus Mashego has been sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of 259 counts of medical aid...
GMC grossly mishandled junior doctor case — UK doctors
Hospital doctors in the UK have told the CEO of the General Medical Council (GMC) his position is “untenable” after his handling of the...
US opioid manufacturers feel the heat over 'deceptive marketing'
Opioid manufacturers are being inundated with lawsuits in the US, accusing the drug-makers of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing, with President Donald Trump raising...
Gauteng Health legal unit spends R94m on private lawyers
Gauteng Health spent R94m on private legal firms in the past year because its own legal unit could not cope. The Citizen reports that...
Baby-swop mother has to attach 400 Gauteng Health desks and chairs
A mother whose baby girl was swopped with a boy in the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg eight years ago had to attach 400...
UK's NHS took years to phase out killer sub-standard syringe pumps
At least nine people died in the UK because the National Health Service (NHS) used syringe pumps that did not meet internationally approved safety...
North West doctor loses bid to practice pending HPCSA hearing
A North West doctor under investigation by the Health Professions Council (HPCSA) after a baby girl and two other patients died, has lost his...
Legal action threatened over fertility services to UK transgenders
The UK equality watchdog has threatened the National Health Service with legal action if it does not offer transgender patients access to fertility services, reports...
Medical malpractice 'cartel' cost SA least R60bn – Motsoaledi
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is investigating a long-running medical malpractice scam involving collusion between law firms and state attorneys that has cost government...
UK organ donation law to change to 'presumed consent'
The UK is to go ahead with a change to organ donation rules that means most people will be presumed to have given consent for...
Judges no longer have to rule on vegetative state decisions in the UK
Judges in the UK will no longer need to be consulted when doctors and relatives of patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state...
Online GPs evade regulation by contracting offshore doctors
The UK’s health care regulator is calling for greater powers to protect patients from online GPs that are able avoid regulation by contracting doctors...
Netherlands euthanasia doctor may face criminal charges
A doctor is under criminal investigation over a potential breach of Dutch euthanasia laws after slipping a sleeping drug into a woman’s coffee and...
Prosecution for endangerment not supported by science
The prosecution of HIV positive people for deliberately infecting or endangering others is often not supported by science, according to 20 top scientists including...
Proposed 'pay as you go' compensation system badly flawed, argue experts
Draft legislation for a "pay as you go" system to compensate victims of state medical negligence are badly framed and will force patients back to...
Landmark suit against Monsanto over cancer allegations
A landmark suit against Monsanto about the alleged cancer risks of the company’s popular weedkiller, Roundup, has started in San Francisco. Thousands have brought...
Bill seeks to provide legal certainty over 'living wills'
A National Health Amendment Bill to be tabled in Parliament soon will seek to provide for "legal recognition, legal certainty and legal enforceability regarding...
Former rugby player sues doctor for R45m loss of earnings
Former Blue Bulls prop Morné Mellett (28) has issued summons for R45m against a team doctor, Herman Rossouw and the Blue Bulls Company for...
A flash flood swallowed my invoices and other medical tall tales
The National Healthcare Professionals Association last year launched a Pretoria High Court action regarding the withholding of payments to doctors. In response, medical scheme...
Health Dept: Vets ‘lack knowledge on dispensing medicine'
The SA Veterinary Association (Sava), which represents 1,977 vets across the country, has argued in papers filed in the Constitutional Court that Parliament cut...
Health MEC: Doctors and nurses will be held personally liable for negligence
Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa says her department has established legal ways to hold health workers personally liable for medical negligence but National Education,...
Jury awards $4.7bn pay-out to women using J&J talc products
Johnson & Johnson, which is battling 9,000 legal cases involving its signature baby powder, has been ordered to pay $4.7bn in damages to 22...
Woman wins negligence claim against Bloem chemist over injections
All she wanted was to lose a few kilograms‚ but the injections that were part of a Bloemfontein woman’s diet plan left her with...
ASA rejects doctor's complaint over TV ad on relieving cold symptoms
Children won’t drown when they are rinsing their noses to clear debris or mucus‚ the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled following a doctor’s...
University Free State HOD challenges CMSA findings on 'leaked' exam questions
The head of the obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Free Stateis appealing an 'ambiguous and inconclusive' report by the Colleges of Medicine...
Missouri Appeals Court throws out ovarian cancer verdict against J&J
A Missouri Appeals Court has thrown out a $55m verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit by a woman who claimed she developed...
Periodic payments in medico-legal claims welcome, but must be extended
Legislative amendments in reaction to the financial burden medical malpractice claims present for the State, should apply also to the private sector, writes Donald...
Doctor who hid his HIV status gets 1-year jail sentence
A UK National Health Service (NHS) surgeon who kept his HIV infection secret because he feared he would be stigmatised triggered a nationwide search...
Major Australian inquiry into gynaecologist's decades of misconduct
Health authorities in Australia have launched a major inquiry into a disgraced gynaecologist who mutilated and performed unnecessary operations on dozens of women over...
Almost 50 years on, Spanish doctor on trial in 'stolen babies' scandal
An 85-year-old Spanish gynaecologist is on trial, accused of abducting a baby in 1969 and giving her away, the first person prosecuted for the...
Credibility of expert witness challenged in Rohde murder trial
The State called into question the credibility of defence forensic pathologist Dr Reggie Perumal in the Western Cape High Court, referring to two previous...
Employees, lawyers in medical negligence scam – Free State MEC
Free State Health claims to have uncovered a "scam" involving employees and lawyers sifting through patient files to identify possible medical negligence claims, reports Netwerk24.
Dr David...
Prof Noakes wins tweeting case appeal
Banting advocate Professor Tim Noakes has won his case at the Health Profession’s Council of SA‚ four years after he tweeted that a mother...
Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape face R10.9bn in medical negligence claims
Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape face medical negligence claims of more than R10bn, Parliament has been told.
The Mpumalanga Health Department faces medical negligence claims...
NC Health facing R48.9m medical negligence suit
The Northern Cape Health Department is facing a R48.9m medical negligence lawsuit after a child was born with severe brain damage at Manne Dipico...