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News Update
HPCSA nabs illegal practitioners
Six people have been arrested countrywide after an HPCSA compliance raid – with five unregistered and one suspended practitioner being arrested, and those employing...
New Covid variant cases spreading, but 'no cause for alarm'
Nearly seven years after it first emerged, a new strain of Covid-19 spreading around the world highlights the lingering and evolving threat posed by the virus, reports...
Theft charges dropped, but Health DG still faces fraud charges
The theft charge against suspended National Department of Health (NDoH) DG Dr Sandile Buthelezi has been withdrawn, but he will be back in court...
‘Procurement’ gang barred from Mediclinic Potchefstroom
Police officers and hospital security had to forcibly remove a gang of nine men who refused to leave after barging into Potchefstroom Mediclinic last...
Unpaid hospitals turn away RAF claimants
Private hospitals and specialists are apparently refusing to treat vehicle crash victims under the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) undertaking certificates because of the lengthy...
Western Cape launches 3D-printed spinal braces
In a major innovative step, the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness has launched a new digital 3D scanning and printing service for...
Data breach leaves clients’ calls exposed on internet
An IT company in Gqeberha exposed thousands of telephone recordings, many dealing with confidential medical and financial matters, on the internet after accidentally misconfiguring...
Cancer patient crowdfunds after Gqeberha hospital’s scanners fail
Malfunctioning, broken equipment at government hospitals is nothing new, and after a recent such occasion, a cancer patient in Gqeberha had to resort to...
UK nurse who objected to trans doctor in women’s changeroom loses case
A nurse in Scotland who objected to sharing a female hospital changing room with a transgender doctor has lost her employment tribunal case against her trade...
Probes find NHS trust maternity data deleted on purpose
A breach at a scandal-ridden NHS trust deliberately wiped out data involving hundreds of maternity cases at the UK's Nottingham University Hospitals – linked...
Pharmacist jailed for seven years for selling 300 000 opioids
A pharmacy owner who repeatedly ignored her staff’s warning and who continued to illegally dispense highly addictive oxycodone pills to customers – many of...
Dialysis thief sentenced
The conviction and sentencing of a man who was involved in a scheme to steal expensive dialysis equipment has been welcomed by the Secunda...
Kenya considers HPV jabs for boys
The Kenyan Government may extend the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme to boys as the country boosts efforts to prevent cervical cancer and other...
Kenyan slams posts promoting allergy drug insertion to tighten vagina
Concerned pharmacists in Kenya have issued a widespread warning after viral social media posts promoting the insertion of allergy tablets for vaginal tightening, reports...
First MRI machine for Namibia public sector
In Namibia, more than 4 000 public facility patients had been referred to private facilities for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) services over the past...
KeyHealth ordered to fully cover child’s costly rare disease drug
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) appeals committee has instructed a medical scheme to fully fund a multimillion-rand treatment required by a 15-year-old suffering...
Deadlines loom for benefit option swops as members face big increases
Medical aid members have been reminded not to miss their schemes’ deadlines to change benefit options for 2027, this as most of them announce...
Healthcare workers must be alert to signs of abuse in children – SA study
Researchers who found alarming levels of child abuse in a six-year study at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, have called for greater awareness from...
Minister urges action on port delays to address medicine shortages
Western Cape Health & Wellness Minister Mireille Wenger has written to national Transport Minister Barbara Creecy over delays in the delivery of essential medicines,...
Call for probe after ambulance’s non-arrival blamed for child's death
The death of an eight-year-old boy on Sunday in the Cape community of Manenberg has devastated the family, who were told that no ambulance...
ChatGPT medical advice blamed for woman's death in lawsuit
A chatbot helped a woman taper off a lifesaving drug and hide the plan from her doctors, leading directly to her death, according to...
Millions spent on NHI despite Act’s suspension
The Department of Health has spent R1.3bn on the NHI project in the 2025/26 financial year even while the implementation of the Act remains...
ARV tender turmoil will not affect supply, department says
The supply of ARVs to South Africans will not be affected by the recent High Court judgment whereby parts of the R15.5bn tender allocations...
State allocates R1.6bn to fight national crisis of child stunting
Although the government has said it will set aside money to combat child stunting, and interventions to support pregnant women and their babies for...
Ebola kills two doctors within 48 hours
Two young doctors died from Ebola last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), bringing the number of healthcare professionals reported to have...
Physicians age bias lawsuit heads to trial in US
The age and disability discrimination lawsuit by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Yale New Haven (Connecticut) Hospital over its cognitive and vision testing...
Kennedy okays unproven peptide jabs, despite FDA reservations
Effort to loosen rules on unproven peptide drugs, favoured by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, are facing resistance from the majority of...
AI bots flood UK vape ban consultation to swing policy outcome
An analysis published this week in the journal Tobacco Control has revealed that an avalanche of bots had flooded a British Government consultation with...
CCMA to decide on community health workers’ status in Western Cape
Protesting community health workers (CHW) in the Western Cape have taken their fight for permanent jobs to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration...
Canadian Bill allows euthanasia requests ‘in advance’
The Canadian government has introduced a new Bill allowing people to ask, in advance, to be euthanised at a later date if and when...
Medicine shortages worse a year after President’s interventions
Unpaid provincial Health Department accounts, regulatory disputes with SAHPRA, and manufacturing pressures are among the reported causes of a widespread medicine shortage in South...
Public sector access to obesity jabs still far off
The chances of the Health Department offering GLP-1 drugs to public sector patients for obesity any time soon are remote, reports Business Day.
While the...
‘Gap cover is breaking medical schemes’ – SA actuaries
Four actuaries from Medscheme, one of the country’s largest medical scheme administrators, presented evidence at the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA) convention in...
800 Bronkhorstspruit contamination cases ‘not an ‘outbreak’, says Minister
Despite at least 830 people having been affected by the contaminated water in Bronkhorstspruit, and having sought medical help for gastrointestinal problems, Water and...
Queues, medicine shortages, plague clinic patients
Shortages of critical medicines and endless queues at clinics around the country are frustrating outpatients, whose anger is compounded by fear of having to...
Karoo patients travel for 10 hours for cancer care or dialysis
Patients in Beaufort West who need lifesaving dialysis and chemotherapy have to travel for 10 hours for help, with some having to book overnight...
Treasury flags perilous state of provincial Health finances
Continuing weak financial control in provincial Health Departments – and lack of improvement in audits – has been slammed by the Treasury, with a...
Malaria cases in Gauteng tied to travel elsewhere, say experts
The surge in malaria cases in Gauteng this year was not caused by mosquito bites within the province, but rather, linked to people who...
Free State records two mpox cases
Two people in Sasolburg have tested positive for mpox, with health officials saying both infections are linked to the same source, reports The Citizen.
The...
Public Protector slams Eastern Cape Health
After an unannounced visit to two hospitals in the Eastern Cape, an irate Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka said the public health sector was...