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News Update
Cape doctor wins half a million in Labour Court battle
The Cape Town Labour Court has dismissed an application by the provincial Department of Health to appeal a ruling finding the precautionary suspension of...
First Eastern Cape public IVF clinic opens
Eastern Cape Health has just launched the province’s first public in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic, which opened at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha last...
KZN MEC stands by claims about private paramedics
KwaZulu-Natal Transport & Human Settlements MEC Siboniso Duma has said he will not retract his remarks or apologise for insulting private paramedics, reports News24.
Duma's...
USAID dismantling could mean 9.4m deaths by 2030 – Lancet study
It’s been one year since the Trump administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID), with aid cuts leading to the closure of...
WHO flags data risks with rapid escalation of AI in healthcare
A WHO report on a five-year digital transformation strategy framework was the focus of a debate last week over who owns the data in...
US threatens Gavi over vaccines ingredient
The US Government has threatened to withdraw all future funding unless Gavi, the vaccine alliance, removes the ingredient thimerosal from its vaccines. This comes...
Hospitals, clinics, battered by Limpopo floods
Persistent heavy rains and flooding have caused extensive damage to a number of health facilities in Limpopo, leaving some partially inaccessible while others are...
Japan to start Nipah virus human vaccine trial
A team of researchers in Japan has announced a clinical trial to confirm a vaccine’s efficacy against the deadly Nipah virus in humans, for...
EthiQal Recognition Programme launches
The newly launched, first of its kind, EthiQal Recognition Programme strives to acknowledge professional conduct that reflects a commitment to the delivery of excellent...
Ramaphosa seeks Constitutional Court intervention on NHI ruling
The Constitutional Court has been asked by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to overturn the Gauteng High Court judgment declaring...
Bonitas cuts ties with Medscheme
A four-decade long relationship has ended after Bonitas severed its ties with medical scheme administrator Medscheme, appointing Momentum and Private Health Administrators (PHA) to...
Call to exempt mental health experts from VAT
The cost of mental healthcare in South Africa – and the shortage of providers in the field – means that more and more people...
Lawsuit threat after KZN MEC slams private paramedics
KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Siboniso Duma has accused a private ambulance service in Durban of “bulldozing” their way into accident scenes, bullying law enforcement, inflating...
Mpumalanga hires 100 new doctors
The appointment of nearly 100 new doctors last week at clinics and hospitals in Mpumalanga would strengthen primary healthcare and boost service delivery, said...
Hospital CEOs in hot water over Israeli delegation visit
Eastern Cape Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa has launched an investigation into two hospital CEOs who allowed an Israeli diplomatic delegation to tour their facilities...
Eastern Cape patients risk lives in local clinics, report finds
Political parties have slammed the findings of an oversight report exposing appalling conditions at health facilities in the Eastern Cape’s Buffalo City Metro and...
Aids drug supply resumes as Barrs exits business rescue
Barrs Pharmaceuticals, which was unable to supply its share of the government’s Aids drug tender, has exited business rescue and sold a controlling stake...
Deputy President’s son’s link to IDT oxygen plants controversy
Investigations into the now controversial R836m PSA oxygen plants tender have revealed that Thabiso Mashatile, son of Deputy President Paul Mashatile, had personally signed...
Patient's 10-hour wait highlights Rahima Moosa staff crisis
A Johannesburg hospital has apologised to a couple who endured a frustrating 10-hour wait for attention last week, despite their pleas for help and...
Western Cape diphtheria cases on the rise
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has warned that cases of toxigenic respiratory diphtheria are increasing, particularly in the Western Cape, where booster...
Patient forced to travel 350km to treat broken finger
A broken finger that should have been easily treated turned into a major drama for an Eastern Cape patient, who was forced to travel...
Nipah virus cases in India trigger Asian airport screenings
After the recording of two confirmed cases of the Nipah virus in West Bengal, India, authorities in parts of Asia – Singapore, Thailand and...
FDA halts two gene therapy trials after child develops brain tumour
Two investigational gene therapies for rare paediatric diseases have been put on hold by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) after a child...
US doctor charged in battered baby case
A doctor has been released on $250 000 bail after his arrest in a child endangerment case in Ohio in which an infant was...
Africa CDC and Global Fund establish central data repository
A Central Data Repository (CDR) launched by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) aims to strengthen how public health data...
Paarl Hospital arson-accused was a psychiatric patient at facility
A 35-year-old man who appeared in court last Thursday accused of starting a fire at Paarl Provincial Hospital was a psychiatric patient at the...
‘Hypnotic’ UK doctor cleared of sexual misconduct
A British medical tribunal has, for the second time, cleared a doctor of sexual misconduct after he was accused of talking to female patients...
Kenya’s NHI loses billions to fraud
Kenya’s Health Cabinet has revealed that the government lost Sh11bn through fraudulent and irregular medical claims under the new Social Health Authority (SHA) system,...
Data from US study on children misused for ‘race science’
Rogue researchers managed to access genetic data from 20 000 American children, which they used to do bogus “race science” research, fuelling concerns that...
Leave NHI challenges to the court and lawmakers, state says
The Department of Health has dug in its heels and told critics that, like it or not, the NHI Act is law, and there’s...
Thousands of KZN community health workers finally employed full-time
KwaZulu-Natal Health has permanently employed more than 5 000 community health workers (CHW), marking a triumph for the National Education Health and Allied Workers’...
CMS rules on healthcare products branding in Dis-Chem dispute
Dis-Chem has defended its health insurance partnership with Centriq and Kaelo insurance products, saying a recent regulatory ruling should be seen as a clarification...
SA experts call for warning labels on common, carcinogenic food products
Popular fast and processed foods consumed daily by South Africans are taking their toll on public health, with regulars like bacon, hot dogs and...
Health Department under barrage over jobless doctors
The Department of Health has come under fire from the Junior Doctors Committee of the South African Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu), which has...
Mpondoland hospital patients battle for healthcare since 2025 floods
A year after floods devastated the already dilapidated Greenville Hospital in eastern Mpondoland, frustrated patients say infrastructure problems continue to restrict services after parts...
Killer terbufos pesticide still being sold by vendors
Despite a ban on illegal sales, the highly toxic pesticide terbufos – commonly known as “halephirimi” (“the sun won’t set”), which has been linked...
Western Cape health system buckles under violent trauma cases
Gang violence-related injuries are crippling Western Cape emergency centres and trauma units, with nearly 27 000 patients being treated at public hospitals in just...
US leaves WHO, leaving massive funding gap
The US has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organisation (WHO) – leaving the UN agency without one of its biggest donors, and without...
Six countries lose WHO measles-free status
A rise in measles deaths – and a decline in the number of children having the MMR jab – has resulted in Britain, with...
Theranos founder Holmes asks Trump for early release
Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos founder who still has nearly six years left of her 11-year prison sentence, has asked US President Donald Trump...