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Medico-Legal
Mega malpractice verdicts against US doctors on the rise
Staggeringly large malpractice awards against hospitals and doctors are rising worldwide, but especially in the United States, according to data from TransRe, an international...
HPCSA issues fines for expired medicines and false representation
Fines and suspensions – for cases including expired medicine, partnering with unregistered staff, and false representation – are among the penalties recently handed out...
Unlicensed NGO parades disabled patients in subsidy dispute protest
In a case reminiscent of the Life Esidimeni tragedy, another instance of the disdain shown to intellectually and physically disabled people has emerged in...
UK healthcare staff sue NHS over Covid contractions
British frontline workers who contracted Covid while taking care of patients have instituted legal action against NHS trusts, registered practices and any other applicable...
Worker forced to get Covid vaccine wins compensation from employer
A South Australian government employee who fell ill after getting a mandatory Covid vaccine has won compensation against his employer.
Daniel Shepherd worked as a...
Beale ignored advice not to operate on children, state claims
As the murder and fraud trial of Dr Peter Beale got underway this week, with the first state witness taking the stand, the prosecution...
SAMA urges law reform as paediatrician now faces murder charges
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has again called for law reform after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) changed the charges against paediatric surgeon...
J&J agrees to pay $700m to resolve talc cases
Johnson & Johnson has reached a tentative settlement to resolve probes by 42 American states into whether it misled consumers about the safety of its...
Court upholds lifetime ban from industry for pharma boss
Two years after a judge banned US pharmaceutical boss Martin Shkreli for life from working in the industry, a federal appeals court this week...
Midwife fined for swapping children's Covid vaccines with oral pellets
A hefty $300 000 fine has been slapped on a New York midwife for giving 1 500 children homeopathic pellets rather than the vaccinations...
CMS loses appeal over low-cost cover challenge
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) plans to apply for a reconsideration of the dismissal of its appeal against a High Court directive to...
Psychologist guilty of misconduct over killer Donovan Moodley report
A psychologist who had evaluated murderer Donovan Moodley – who killed Johannesburg student Leigh Matthews in 2004 – and supported his release on parole,...
No ‘duty of care’ owed to patients’ families, UK court rules
In a majority verdict, Britain’s Supreme Court has ruled that doctors “do not owe a duty of care to their patients’ families to protect...
Ugandan nurse arrested after babies suffocate in incubators
A nurse at Tororo Main Hospital in Uganda has been arrested and accused of abuse and negligence after the death of two babies in...
Bail for audiologist accused of R1.2m medical aid swindle
A Limpopo speech therapist and audiologist, Dr Lesiba Morgan Gololo, has been released on R1 500 bail after appearing in the Thabamoopo Magistrate’s Court...
Judge throws out lead poisoning class action suit against Anglo
The Gauteng High Court has found no basis for a “factually hopeless” lead poisoning class action against Anglo American, linked to the Kabwe mine...
Bayer triumph after latest Roundup cancer trial
Bayer has won a trial in a lawsuit brought by a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its Roundup weedkiller,...
New lawyers for men accused of assassinating Babita Deokaran
The six men charged with Babita Deokaran’s murder made another appearance in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) last week, when their previous attorney withdrew...
Ombud finds clinic staff negligent after turning away rape victim who died
The Health Ombudsman has slammed the conduct of staff at Motherwall Clinic in Gqeberha, who turned away a 15-year-old rape victim seeking help before...
Hospital distances itself from surgeon after 'botched' op
A mother of two has opened criminal cases against a surgeon and his assistant after claiming her operation at a private Johannesburg facility last...
Durban doctor (85) convicted over fake death certificates
Retired Durban doctor Eric van der Veen (85) has been convicted of two counts of fraud for signing death certificates – used in multimillion-rand...
Hip implants ‘just snapped in half’, allege US lawsuits
Patients expected their Profemur artificial hips to last, but when they snapped in half, hundreds of them were left in agony, unable to walk,...
Swifter justice urged in NHS infected blood scandal
British campaigners have warned the country’s government that it will be “on the wrong side of history” if it rejects a new compensation scheme...
Lawyer in medico-legal fees wrangle escapes sequestration bid
Attorney Zuko Nonxuba and his wife Alicia Novelano Nonxuba escaped bankruptcy after the Eastern Cape High Court (East London) dismissed separate applications for their...
Lauren Dickason to be sentenced in 2024
South African doctor and convicted triple murderer Lauren Dickason, found guilty in August of murdering her three children in their New Zealand home, has...
Discovery asks court to declare RAF in contempt
Discovery Health has filed its contempt of court application against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and CEO Collins Letsoalo for failing to comply with...
Rugby players apply for class action lawsuit over brain injuries
At the High Court in London last week, 295 players applied for a class action lawsuit in their legal battle with rugby union’s governing...
Texas AG sues Pfizer over Covid-19 jab claims
Pfizer has been sued by Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton, who has accused the drugmaker of misrepresenting the efficacy of its widely-used Covid-19 vaccine, and...
Money vs principles in OxyContin case
America’s massive opioid crisis was highlighted this week in the US Supreme Court when arguments were heard in a challenge to the multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy...
Ex-US nurse convicted of negligent homicide fails to get licence back
A Tennessee court has rejected former nurse RaDonda Vaught’s appeal to overturn a nursing board’s 2021 decision and get her licence back.
Vaught made headlines...
Justice committee slaps down medico-legal claims Bill
A Bill aimed at structuring the payment of medico-legal claims against the state has been rejected by Parliament’s Justice & Correctional Services Committee.
The State...
SA health NGOs join in cystic fibrosis drugs battle
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Doctors without Borders (MSF) are being admitted as amicus curiae (friends of the court) in a case against...
Doctor charged with PPE fraud and theft
Gauteng Department of Health employee Dr Obakeng Stephen Mookeletsi – from Leratong Hospital – has appeared in court on charges of fraud, theft and...
Gauteng Health in court over medical waste tender deal
The Gauteng Health Department is being sued in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) after being accused of awarding a multimillion-rand medical waste tender –...
Judge rebukes RAF for disobeying court orders in hospital claims
A High Court judgment has slammed the conduct of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and its CEO, Collins Letsoalo, and the manner in which...
US hospital sued after mislabelled IV bag leads to patient's paralysis
A Pennsylvanian couple has launched a medical malpractice suit after the man, in hospital at the time with Covid, was given a paralysing agent...
Patients sue Spanish government over banned painkiller
A patients group representing several British victims has launched legal action against the Spanish Government over claims it failed to safeguard people against the...
GP fined for spreading false Covid information
A Pretoria GP has been found guilty by the Health Professions Council of SA of unethical conduct by disseminating false information about Covid-19 vaccines...
GP (85) pleads for lenient sentence in fake death certificate case
An 85-year-old doctor accused of issuing a fake death certificate, who previously claimed he was “too old for a trial”, is now negotiating a...
Full salary for North West health official despite 11-month absence
Despite not reporting for duty since January, a senior North West Health Department official facing misconduct and criminal charges related to alleged tender fraud has...