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Medico-Legal
Contaminated blood victims given permission to sue UK government
More than 500 victims of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) contaminated blood scandal have been given permission to sue the government for compensation,...
Pharmaceutical group pleads guilty to misbranding of cholesterol drug
Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc will plead guilty to two misdemeanors and pay $40.1m to resolve investigations into its marketing and sales of an expensive cholesterol...
UK fails to reduce maternity medical negligence by analysing incidents
UK attempts to reduce maternity medical negligence leading to cerebral palsy or brain injuries by learning from incidents have failed, reports the NHS body...
‘Oversight failures and greed’ drive SA’s medical litigation explosion
SA public sector medical malpractice claims often stem from 'failures of management and oversight of clinical care, while the in the private sector, greed...
Gauteng Health reneges on liability damage payouts
Gauteng Health has reneged on payment agreements in at least four medical liability cases, reports News 24. Warrants of execution have now been served...
Terminally ill pair in new SA bid to legalise euthanasia
A medical doctor and one of her patients have filed a combined application in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) asking the court to legalise euthanasia,...
Victims of unnecessary breast operations to receive £37m
About 750 victims of botched or unnecessary breast operations carried out by rogue UK surgeon Ian Paterson are to receive £37m in compensation. The...
Insys founder identified as co-conspirator in doctor bribing case
US prosecutors have identified Insys Therapeutics' billionaire founder as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case accusing six former executives and managers of participating in a...
HPCSA ups the battle against bogus medical practitioners
A Health Professions Council of SA unit is conducting about 400 investigations into bogus medical practitioners, with more than 40 arrests to date. Data from the...
Pharma company settles prescription kickback suit in US
Galena Biopharma will pay more than $7.55m to resolve charges it paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe its opioid-based pain medication...
Social Development bid to appeal frail care ruling
The Department of Social Development has asked the Port Elizabeth High Court for permission to appeal against a ruling that it has to carry...
Eastern Cape Health investigating attorney medical fraud
The Eastern Cape Department of Health is investigating suspected fraud by attorneys in several medico-legal cases. Superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe is quoted in a...
Drugmaker sued for fraudulent marketing of cancer pain medicine
The state of Arizona has sued Insys Therapeutics, accusing the drugmaker of engaging in a fraudulent marketing scheme aimed at increasing sales of a...
Bogus Rustenburg doctor sentenced to 20 years in prison
A bogus doctor who performed circumcisions and dispensed medication has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after he was convicted on 4 523 counts...
More patient deaths attributed to killer German nurse
A male nurse jailed for life two years ago for killing two patients with lethal drug overdoses murdered at least 90 patients in total,...
Largest J&J talc damages award over ovarian cancer claim
A jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to pay $417m to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s...
Gauteng Health seeks to pay negligence victims with future medical services
Gauteng Health will pay victims of state negligence with future medical services if its Constitutional Court application is successful.
Business Day reports that the department will...
Witbank gynae gets 5 years jail for gross neglect
Witbank gynaecologist Dr Danie van der Walt has been sentenced to five years for culpable homicide after he grossly neglected his patient who later...
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...