HomeMedico-Legal
Medico-Legal
Stark choice under landmark Namibian medical aids ruling
Unless parliament intervenes – a highly unlikely scenario – doctors and other health care providers in Namibia, face a stark choice: find a satisfactory way...
Breast surgeon who intentionally wounded patients has jail term increased to 20 years
A breast surgeon in the UK who intentionally wounded his patients has had his 15-year jail term increased to 20 years. BBC News reports...
UK doctor charged with 118 sexual offences
A doctor in the UK has been charged with 118 sexual offences, according to Scotland Yard.
The Independent reports that Manish Shah, a GP from...
Bogus Cuban doctor worked at KZN private hospital
A bogus doctor who went undetected in Pietermaritzburg for 14 years, including working at Daymed Private Hospital, has been arrested and charged with fraud.
Cuban...
Penguin withdraws book by Mandela's doctor, former SANDF surgeon-general
Penguin Random House SA has withdrawn from the shelves Mandela’s Last Years, written by the former Surgeon-General of the SA National Defence Force, who...
Gauteng hospital negligence responsible for leg amputation of soccer player
The Gauteng Department of Health is liable for damages and the legal fees of a 12-year-old aspirant professional soccer player admitted to Mamelodi Hospital...
UK man wins over £1m damages after losing leg to necrotising faciitis
A UK father who lost a leg and fingers to a flesh-eating bug after he was 'lost in the system' at a busy National...
Former EC Health MEC accused of clinic 'takeover'
A former ANC MP and Eastern Cape Health MEC has been accused of locking nurses and patients out of a kidney clinic that he...
Rustenburg doctor who defrauded the Compensation Fund sentenced
The Labour Department announced a medical doctor who had defrauded the Compensation Fund (CF) of close to R400,000 had been sentenced to seven years’...
Feeding frenzy of lawyers and lenders around recipients of $1bn concussion settlement
The New York Times reports that former NFL players stand to receive cheques from the largest legal settlement in sports history, a pool of...
Scientists sue prestigious US institute for gender discrimination
Two senior women scientists are suing their employer, the prestigious Salk Institute for Biological Studies, alleging pervasive, long-standing gender discrimination, reports Science Mag. The...
SA Law Reform Commission examines spiralling medico-legal claims
Comment is sought by the SA Law Reform Commission on an issue paper exploring reasons for spiralling number of medico-legal claims, particularly against the state,...
Eastern Cape Health to outsource lawyers
Eastern Cape Health MEC Pumza Dyantyi has decided to outsource the department’s legal representation, saying that the State Attorney’s Ofice had won only four cases out of...
Solidarity hails ruling that graduate nurse must be given a job
The SA Health Department has been given 30 days to place a graduate nurse who has been waiting for six months for a community service post....
Limpopo doctor's suspension after arrest for drug trafficking
Limpopo Health will suspend a community service doctor who was arrested after he was found in possession of nyaope and dagga. Dr Mpho Lekalakala was...
Bill to be tabled to amend Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act
The African Christian Democratic Party's (ACDP’s) Cheryllyn Dudley intends tabling a Bill in Parliament proposing amendments to the 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy...
WC government to blame for baby's death in unregistered day-care centre
The Western Cape government is to blame for the asphyxiation of a baby at an unregistered day-care centre‚, despite the 'excuses and bald denials'...
Doctors go to court over 'spying' but SA med schemes say it's justified
Doctors have brought a High Court action against SA’s biggest medical-aid schemes over 'spying' and 'sneaking hidden cameras' into their consulting rooms.
The Sunday Times reports that the...
Experts divided on ECJ's ruling on medical product liability
International experts on liability law are divided on what the decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on allowing scientifically unproven claims about...
Hospital employee challenges efficacy of workplace HIV/Aids policies
A Groote Schuur Hospital employee who appeared before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) testified that her employer had shown little regard for...
EthiQal and MPS take up the debate on mediation for medical negligence claims
Graham Howarth, the Medical Protection Society's head of medical services Africa, and JP Ellis, EthiQal's medical malpractice legal manager, respond to Advocate Alan Nelson's...
By gum! Dentists battle it out over who is the real Dr Smile
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) is faced with deciding which of two Johannesburg dentists has the right to be known as Dr Smile.
Dentist Zeyn...
France charges weight-loss pill drugmaker over deaths
The Paris prosecutor's office has announced that drugmaker Servier as well as the French drug regulator should face trial over weight-loss pill Mediator, believed...
Case will test efficacy of HIV/Aids workplace disclosure policies
A labour case that will test the efficacy of policies regarding treatment of people living with HIV/Aids and status disclosure in the workplace has...
Abusive, grossly negligent and fired Gauteng doctor wins compensation
A Gauteng doctor who was dismissed without a disciplinary hearing for insolence‚ insubordination and gross negligence will receive compensation equivalent to three months’ remuneration,...
More than 100 new victims UK's rogue breast cancer surgeon seek redress
More than 100 new victims of rogue UK breast cancer surgeon Ian Paterson have come forward to seek legal help following the medic’s conviction...
Baby dies after being fed alternative gluten-free/lactose-free diet
A seven-month-old baby died weighing just 4kg after his parents, owners of a natural foods store, fed him an alternative gluten-free, lactose-free diet, a...
Gauteng’s negligent medical ‘professionals' get off scot-free
Gauteng Health has paid out over R1bn since January 2015 to settle medical negligence, yet not a single disciplinary actionhas been taken against any...
Durban doctor interdicts car guards from harassing his patients
A Durban doctor has taken a group of ‘rogue’ car guards to court to stop them from harassing people at the shopping centre from...
Noakes calls on practitioners to support him against HPCSA 'witchhunt'
Professor Tim Noakes claims the Health Professions Council of SA's decision to appeal the majority ruling finding him not guilty of misconduct smacks of...
R18m damages for spastic quadriplegia following oxygen deprivation at birth
Gauteng Health has to pay R18.2m in damages to a mother whose son was born more than 10 years ago with severe brain damage...
Hawks widen investigation into SA medical school 'places for sale'
Three Durban restaurateurs arrested by the Hawks, accused of selling places to study at the University of KwaZulu Natal's medical school for up to half...
Too few African countries respect human rights of TB patients – judge
An impassioned challenge to respect the human rights of people with TB has been made by a prominent African judge, who says too few...
Health Ombud's orders on psychiatric patients ignored
About 100 psychiatric patients are still trapped in hospices unequipped to care for mentally ill patients after the Gauteng Department of Health had failed...
Staffer accused of assault was 'following example of other nurses'
Former Lily Kirchmann’s staff member Tshibangu Kolonji told the East London Regional Court he assaulted Hope Shepherd because other nursing staff in the upmarket...
Doctor accused of murdering twins denied single cell in Pollsmoor
A bid by a Spanish doctor‚ accused of murdering his twins‚ to be placed in a single cell at Pollsmoor prison has been refused....
UK breast surgeon found guilty of wounding with intent
UK breast surgeon Ian Paterson has been found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent after being accused of carrying out a series...
State cannot offer free medical treatment in lieu of payment for damages
A recent SA Appeal Court judgment has held that the state cannot offer free future medical treatment in lieu of paying monetary damages upfront, write...
UK women sue NHS and Johnson & Johnson over vaginal mesh implants
More than 800 UK women are taking legal action against the National Health Service (NHS) and Johnson & Johnson, over 'barbaric' vaginal mesh implants,...
Doctor faces life in prison for first case of FGM in US
A doctor in the US city of Detroit has been charged with carrying out female genital mutilation (FGM) on young girls in what is...