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News Update
GEMS plan risks members’ long-term interests – CMS
A plan by the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) for lower contributions – to accommodate union demands – is neither financially sound nor in...
Eastern Cape MEC, HoD ordered to pay wages or face arrest/fine
The Eastern Cape Department of Health has until Tuesday next week to comply with an order to pay the salaries of a group of...
Fake sick note scheme bust by SAPS
Two men who ran a thriving business selling fraudulent sick notes in KwaMashu, Durban, were arrested this week after a drug addict unwittingly tipped...
Special mental health unit built for Western Cape’s teenage girls
The Western Cape has spent millions designing and building a specialised inpatient ward for teenage girls battling severe mental health issues, reports IOL.
Lentegeur Hospital’s...
KZN pupil dies after two energy drinks
A Durban doctor has issued a warning about the dangers of energy drinks after the death of a 13-year-old pupil in KwaMashu last week....
Gauteng Health ‘crippling forensic pathology services’
The DA has slammed Gauteng Health’s apparent disregard for the concerns recently highlighted by provincial forensic pathology labs. In a statement, the party said that...
UK experts welcome new diabetes-delaying drug for NHS
A first-of-its-kind therapy that can delay type 1 diabetes for up to three years will soon be available across the UK, after the approval by the...
100 Romanian hospitals switch to pen and paper after cyber attack
A quick-thinking cyber security chief in Romania helped 100 national hospitals thwart efforts by hackers to completely infiltrate their systems but the attack, in...
Couple in IVF mix-up will keep ‘wrong’ baby
The American couple at the centre of an IVF mix-up will remain their six-month-old baby girl’s “permanent” parents after making a deal with her...
Turkish hospital makes history with eight-way liver transplant
Türkiye has become a global centre for liver transplantation, with the recent world-first eight-way cross-liver transplant sealing this reputation, said the country’s Health Minister...
US foot doctor sues state for millions after fraud charges
A leading US podiatric surgeon who would often appear in the news for his charitable gestures – he also ran a non-profit that provided...
Pretoria pharmacy denies infringing Novo Nordisk patent rights
A Gauteng High Court judge has reserved judgment in the case between Novo Nordisk and iDexis in which the pharmaceutical giant seeks to prevent...
Healthcare workers and patients under siege as extortion gangs target clinics
Violence and extortion are targeting the poorest and the most vulnerable communities in South Africa, choking access to clinics and medical care, and terrorising...
Cyber hackers target South Africa’s healthcare system
Experts have called for stronger cyber-security measures to be implemented countrywide, warning that South Africa is the most targeted country in Africa by these...
SAMA warning as number of bogus doctors rises
Fake and unregistered doctors in South Africa are becoming harder to identify, according to the South African Medical Association (SAMA), which told The Citizen...
Health Department staff probed over R800m oxygen tender
Three Health Department officials are being investigated in connection with the awarding of the R800m Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Oxygen Plant tender from the...
KZN Health ‘lied’, say protesting unemployed doctors
Hundreds of unemployed doctors protested outside the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s office in Pietermaritzburg yesterday, accusing the provincial Department of Health of lying and failing to...
Call for action as diabetes now leading cause of natural deaths
Tens of thousands of South Africans are dying annually from diabetes-related illnesses, the Diabetes Alliance has revealed after its review of mortality data released...
Pregnancy fears after birth control pill shortages
A contraception shortage in some North West and Gauteng clinics for the past three or four months is increasing women’s concerns about unplanned pregnancies,...
Zulu folk music used to encourage heart health
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the world’s leading cause of mortality, is becoming a major killer of Africans, killing more than 1m people in sub-Saharan Africa...
Major expansion for Umhlanga’s Gateway Private Hospital
New ICU and high-care beds as well as a seventh operating theatre at Busamed Gateway Private Hospital are indications of the growing healthcare demand...
Africa-first pioneering liver transplant machine at Wits
A new R2.7m liver perfusion machine that could save more lives has been introduced at the Wits University Donald Gordon Medical Centre, making it...
Dis-Chem chooses ‘bold’ over ‘safe’ in multi-million rand investments
Dis-Chem says its R300m investment in its innovation hub – X, bigly labs – among other projects last year, was intended to force an...
Trump’s African health deals threaten human rights – report
Human Rights Watch has warned in a recent report that America’s bilateral health pacts with African countries – and its condition that the US...
Bran flakes may be classified as ‘junk food’ in UK reforms
The British Government is considering updating rules on what it views as unhealthy food – which could mean popular cereals like bran flakes, frequently...
Ghana asks anti-vaxxer, anti-WHO activist, to address ‘Family Values’ congress
Ghana’s Parliament recently invited an anti-vaccine Kenyan and a conservative Dutch activist campaigning to curtail the WHO to address visiting MPs on “health sovereignty”,...
Life sentence for man who shot and killed nurse wife
A Limpopo man who murdered his wife, a nurse who was on duty at Lebowakgomo Hospital at the time, has been sentenced to life...
More Tembisa fraud revelations likely after audit records enforcement
In a move that has put the Department of Health in a corner, and which could potentially lead to more damning revelations relating to...
Minister promises SA-made generic as LEN rollout begins
South Africa launched the revolutionary anti-HIV Lencapavir with much fanfare last week, with the Health Department announcing plans to expedite the manufacture of the...
Medscheme denies backlog and blame by Bonitas
Bonitas members have complained about unresolved queries and hospital authorisations after the administrative switchover of Bonitas medical scheme members to Momentum last week. But...
High risk baby’s access to clinic allegedly blocked by vigilantes
The March and March vigilante group has denied any knowledge of a mother and her critically ill four-month-old baby being barred by its members...
World experts call for urgent response, saying Ebola was preventable
Global health leaders, including a number of leading South African health professionals, have signed an open letter to governments in which they urge “an...
South Africa must slash its reliance on imported drugs – Pharmisa
The Health Department’s growing dependence on medicines from outside South Africa is jeopardising local jobs and the country’s security of supply, say pharmaceutical companies...
Medical aids feeling the pinch
A new analysis from AlexForbes Health, using Council for Medical Schemes data on the country’s 10 biggest open schemes and the 10 largest restricted...
UCT clinches licence to manufacture medical devices
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has granted a medical device manufacturing licence to the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Biomedical Engineering...
Madhi receives leading global infectious diseases award
Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, has been named the recipient of the 2026...
Japan orders warning for vasculitis drug after fatalities
Japanese drugmaker Kissei Pharmaceutical has been ordered by the country’s Health Ministry to add a warning to the package insert of Tavneos (avacopan), a...
Limpopo doctor sells sandwiches to fund patients’ surgeries
A doctor in Burgersfort, Limpopo, is transforming needy patients’ lives by funding their surgeries through the sales of a popular township sandwich, called a...
Johannesburg doctors fund security to keep suburb safer
A group of doctors has resorted to funding a private security company in the bustling suburb of Mayfair, Johannesburg, to make the area safer...
Father and daughter volunteer to change lives with cleft surgery
A Cape Town father and daughter recently joined a team of volunteers who helped deliver life-changing corrective surgery to children born with cleft palates...