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Medico-Legal
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...
Stand-in doctor cleared in historic SA case
The legal duty of doctors when they cover for each other has for the first time being dealt with in SA, after a Durban High...
Noakes cannot be punished for 'unconventional' advice – Defence counsel
Professor Tim Noakes cannot be prosecuted for offering unconventional advice, his lawyer Michael Van der Nest says as the Banting guru's misconduct hearing starts...
Lawyers must be barred from medical negligence process – Health MEC
The KwaZulu-Natal Health, in a Sunday Times interview, has called for lawyers to be excluded from the compensation process for medical malpractice, because "crooked" lawyers are...
Hope Shepherd’s abusive caregiver given eight-year jail sentence
A former caregiver at an East London old age home‚ Ncediswa Mkenkcele‚ is going to prison for eight years for the 2015 assaults on the late...
French anaesthetist poisoning suspect appears in court
An anaesthetist suspected of poisoning seven patients – two of whom died – has appeared in court in France, reports BBC News. The 45-year-old...
UK judge to rule on baby's continued life support
A baby at the centre of a life support treatment dispute is 'extremely unwell' and is likely to be feeling pain, a UK High Court judge...
Huge pay-out expected after judge rules on R20m negligence case
A couple from Bon Accord, north of Pretoria, is claiming more than R20m in damages in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria after the negligence of...
Pharmacist acquitted of murder but convicted of racketeering
The former head of a Massachusetts pharmacy has been acquitted of murder allegations but convicted of racketeering and other crimes in a meningitis outbreak...
SA HIV Clinicians Society wins action over doctor's quackery
Judge MA Makume of the Johannesburg High Court has dismissed an application against the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society by Dr Hugh Brathwaite, a medical...
Soldier claims R2.1m for facial paralysis after 1 Military Hospital operation
A SA National Defence Force soldier is claiming R2.1m for partial facial paralysis, blaming the staff and doctors at 1 Military Hospital.
A soldier from...
Prosecution urges guilty verdict for meningitis scandal pharmacist
A US prosecutor has urged jurors to find the co-founder of a now-defunct Massachusetts pharmacy guilty of murder over the deaths of 25 people...
Pressure group acting to change SA's 'inhumane' foetus burial law
SA's 'sick' legislation that decrees that a foetus less than 26 weeks old cannot be legally buried and is treated as medical waste is...
Cannabis for medicinal use, SA draft guidelines published for comment
The Medicines Control Council (MCC) has published draft guidelines for the cultivation and processing of cannabis for medical use, proposing strict controls at every...
Mother paid damages for toddler's fall out of Mamelodi Hospital bed
The mother of a toddler who fell out of his hospital bed while being treated for pneumonia will receive R150,000 in damages from Gauteng...
Free State Health MEC hit with punitive costs over closure of Bloem radiology practice
The Free State High Court granted a punitive costs order against the MEC for Health and confirmed two interdicts prohibiting the government from closing...
Oily floor leads to default judgment against Pretoria hospital
The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria has issued a default judgment ruling that Unitas Hospital in Centurion was 100% liable for damages that a patient might prove she...
Cars seized after EC Health fails to pay negligence claim
The sheriff of the court has seized several cars belonging to the Eastern Cape Health Department, which owes a woman almost R17m in damages...
Hospital staff could face charges over patient's death
Frere Hospital staff who treated an assault victim who later died from his injuries could be prosecuted for gross negligence after a magistrate ordered...
SA HIV consultant arrested in US on money laundering charges
South African HIV consultant Dr Eugene Sickle has been arrested for money laundering linked to US funding for HIV/Aids programmes, reports The Times.
“Special agents...
Harsher penalties for medical aid fraud called for
Medical aid schemes have criticised the Health Professions Council of SA for handing down fines of R20 000 and less to doctors found guilty of...
Hawks asked to probe UKZN Med School corruption claims
The University of KwaZulu-Natal has called on the Hawks to investigate allegations of corruption at its Nelson Mandela School of Medicine. The Mercury reports...
Genesis eyes members' savings accounts in landmark appeal
Genesis Medical Scheme is battling it out with the Council for Medical Schemes in a Constitutional Court hearing that will potentially allow creditors of...