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Medico-Legal
NHS patient deaths to be investigated by medical examiners
Medical examiners in the UK will investigate patient deaths in the National Health Service (NHS) as part of changes to improve patient safety and...
Nigerian president need not reveal his medical treatment costs
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari does not have to reveal the cost of his treatment for an undisclosed illness that incapacitated him for several months,...
Primarily for hungry litigators, but of help to the practitioner
Medical Malpractice in South Africa will be of great assistance to the 'reasonable doctor', writes reviewer Dr Liz Meyer, a medico-legal adviser for Ethiqal....
SA’s medical negligence Bill 'unfair' and 'endangers patients’
The SA government's proposed 'pay as you go' legislation for dealing with medical negligence claims against the state may prejudice patients by limiting their choices...
Victims sue Gambia's former president for fake HIV/Aids cure
Three victims of a fake HIV/Aids cure created by Gambia’s former president have sued for damages, in the first case against Yahya Jammeh to...
R21m malpractice suit against Netcare and Pretoria practitioners
Various doctors, including a specialist and the Netcare Group, face a lawsuit of more than R21m from a couple whose baby son was admitted...
HPCSA accused of dragging its heels over complaint against doctor
"Give your two-year-old the smack of her life, a good dose of Stopayne and don’t call me in the morning". A Sunday Times reports...
Municipal workers' medical scheme place under administration
The South African Municipal Workers Union Medical Scheme (Samwumed) has been placed under provisional curatorship due to a factional battle. Business Day reports that...
Limpopo Health has lion’s share of province's R7.6bn in legal claims
Limpopo Health has seen the number of cases against it increase by 179 to 831 in the past two years, most for medical negligence.
Limpopo...
UK gynaecologist before medical tribunal after bungled delivery decapitates baby
An unborn baby was decapitated in his mother’s womb as a result of a bungled delivery by an UK National Health Service (NHS) consultant...
Class action settlement reached for miners with silicosis and/or TB
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC), Abrahams Kiewitz Attorneys and Richard Spoor Attorneys, on behalf of thousands of mineworkers, have reached a class action settlement...
HSF analyses legal basis of Esidimeni arbitration awards
Michelle Toxopeüs, legal researcher at the Helen Suzman Foundation has released a brief analysing the legal basis for granting R1.2m in damages to each...
Independent results confirm listeriosis source at Tiger Brands facility
Tiger Brands, which faces two class action lawsuits over a listeria outbreak that has killed almost 200 people, has announced that results from an...
Long-delayed inquiry into NHS contaminated blood starts at last
A UK High Court judge is starting work as the chair of a public inquiry into the biggest treatment scandal in National Health Service...
Buthelezi EMS contracts in North West and Free State to be investigated
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has asked the Treasury Department to investigate the procurement of ambulance services from Buthelezi EMS, a controversial private ambulance...
WHO dismay at SA's failure to enact health regulations Bills
The World Health Organisation has used 'coded diplomatic language' to express alarm at the failure of a 'misdirected and paralytic' SA Parliament to enact...
Some vaginal mesh victims sucked into money-making litigation
Jerri Plummer was at home in Arkansas, watching television with her three children, when a stranger called to warn that her life was in...
US court strikes down drug-maker price-regulation law
A US federal appeals court has declared unconstitutional a 2017 Maryland law that lets the state attorney general sue generic drug-makers who sharply raise...
Progressive interventions needed to stem medical litigation 'explosion'
As Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi described soaring medical malpractice litigation claims in South Africa as an “explosion”, it was revealed that Gauteng Health...
J&J suffers first trial loss in talc/mesothelioma suit
Johnson & Johnson has suffered its first trial loss in a lawsuit claiming its talc-based products including Johnson’s Baby Powder contain cancer-causing asbestos, with...
Fertility doctor sued for secretly using his own sperm
A US woman is suing her parents' former fertility doctor after claiming her DNA test results showed he secretly used his own sperm to...
'Dream team' assembled for listeriosis victims' $2bn claim
A 'dream team' of world-class food safety experts is ready to act on behalf of SA's listeriosis victims and their family members, according to...
Another Life Esidimeni-type tragedy averted by Legal Aid SA
It did not make national headlines, but Legal Aid SA averted a disaster similar to the Life Esidimeni tragedy in the Eastern Cape, reports...
R17bn outstanding for medical negligence made up 'generally' of fraudulent claims — EC Health
Eastern Cape Health claims that unscrupulous lawyers are milking the province, with outstanding medical negligence claims now standing at R17bn, with much of this...
SA targets cerebral palsy claims to staunch flood of negligence actions
Cerebral palsy (CP) claims form more than half of Gauteng Health medical negligence payouts this year, says the province's legal director Mpelegeng Lebeloane, in...
Future UK nurse misconduct hearings could be behind closed doors
Nurses and midwives in the UK will rarely be subject to public misconduct hearings and could avoid any sanctions for errors if they admit...
New legal team saving Eastern Cape Health millions
A newly appointed consortium of lawyers has managed to save the Eastern Cape Health Department R45m. Provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo is quoted in...
Medscheme recovers R107m in fraudulent claims
Medscheme, South Africa’s largest manager of medical schemes, has recovered over R107m claimed fraudulently and through waste or abuse and more than R300m in...
Revised guidelines for care facilities for mentally disabled
The May 2017 national guidelines for licensing and running residential and day care facilities for people with mental and/or intellectual disabilities have been revised...
NW Health 'sorry' for birth control injections without consent
The compulsory contraceptive injection of high school students has led to a public apology by North West Health. The SA Human Rights Commission is...
Gauteng Health settles for R19,2m in cerebral palsy action
A R34m negligence damages claim by Lindiwe Ngwenya over the cerebral palsy of her daughter, following her birth five years ago at the Brakpan Pholosong...
Pharma executive Shkreli sentenced to 7 years for fraud
Martin Shkreli, a former pharma executive notorious for sharply increasing drug prices has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of...
KZN Med School places-for-cash accused lose bid to have charges withdrawn
An application by three people accused of running a scam that traded cash for places at the University of Natal’s Nelson Mandela Medical School...
Legal challenge granted over UK NHS-Home Office patient data deal
The British High Court has granted a legal challenge against a NHS-Home Office deal to hand over patient data to immigration officials. The Independent...
Gupta-linked North West Health head on criminal charges
The North West legislature has laid criminal charges against the head of the province's Health Department, Dr Thabo Lekalakala, following a marathon interrogation over...
Durban couple plead guilty to illegal abortion clinic charges
A Durban couple has pleaded guilty in the Durban Regional Court to operating an illegal abortion clinic in Dr Pixley KaSeme (West) Street. According...
UK launches review into NHS treatment and medical device scandals
The UK’s the health and social care secretary, Jeremy Hunt has launched a nine-month review into how the National Health Service (NHS) addresses concerns...
Doctor challenges HPCSA disciplinary action over schemes that netted R22m
A doctor who allegedly ran dodgy financial schemes that cost his patients millions has approached the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) for an order preventing...
Botched cosmetic procedures lead to calls for better legislation
An 'alarming' rise in reports of botched cosmetic procedures in the UK has prompted doctors and campaigners to call for better legislation to protect...
Gilead wins hepatitis drug patent infringement case
A federal judge in Delaware in the US has overturned a jury’s verdict requiring Gilead Sciences Inc to pay a record $2.54bn because its...