HomeNews Update
News Update
Health Committee pushes ahead with Tobacco Bill
Parliament’s Health Portfolio Committee is going ahead with processing the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill despite concerns about the lack of...
Novo seeks FDA ban on compounded Ozempic
Novo Nordisk has asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent compounding pharmacies from manufacturing their own versions of the company’s weight...
Union slams conditions at Eastern Cape mortuaries
The Public Servants Association (PSA) has urged Eastern Cape Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa to urgently tackle the shocking state of state mortuaries and ensure...
MPs call for Health Department to recoup foreigner nationals' medical expenses
Parliament’s Health Committee wants the Department of Health to consider recouping money spent on treating foreign nationals at state facilities, saying, after reviewing the...
UK private healthcare thriving while NHS flounders
British patients are increasingly flocking to private providers for their healthcare as the National Health Service (NHS) buckles under lengthy waiting lists, which have...
Community health workers protest for full-time jobs
Community health workers picketed outside the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday where their employment status is being litigated, saying they have been fighting...
Probe at KZN hospital after patient set herself alight
KwaZulu-Natal Health is investigating the death of a woman (41) last week who died after setting herself on fire at Clairwood Hospital, with the...
UK’s disposable vape ban coming next year
Britain is to enforce its ban on disposable vapes next year, with new laws giving suppliers a deadline of 1 June 2025 to dump...
Freeze on equipment outlays as Gauteng budget falters
Gauteng Health has halted the procurement of all new equipment with immediate effect, further crippling state hospitals already constrained by various shortages, including staff.
A...
Tygerberg faces C-section backlog crisis
The backlog of pregnant women awaiting elective Caesareans at Tygerberg Hospital’s maternity ward has increased, according to staff, who say that while the waiting...
Regulator rules for medical aid members in more than 50% of disputes
The Council for Medical Schemes has said that in the past financial year, it found in favour of more than 50% of members who...
Health inspector army seeks ‘chemical agent’ tied to food poisonings
The Department of Health is dispensing 80 environmental health inspectors to search for “chemical agents” believed to be responsible for a rash of apparent...
SAHPRA pleads for increased funding
SA’s medicines regulator has again appealed to National Treasury for more funding, saying its increasing reliance on fee income puts it in a precarious...
Fake medicines trade flourishing in KZN
Organised crime networks are continuing to do a roaring trade in counterfeit pharmaceutical products smuggled into South Africa and into the hands of desperate...
Emergency personnel may be linked to ambulances sabotage
Mpumalanga authorities are investigating claims that some Health Department staff deliberately damaged ambulances in acts of sabotage, rendering them unusable.
The province is already desperately...
Health Squared members unlikely to retrieve savings after liquidation
While it is still unclear if members of Health Squared Medical Scheme – which was placed in final liquidation in February 2023 – will...
Bloemfontein morgue closed for health, safety reasons
After receiving numerous complaints, the Department of Employment & Labour has closed a government mortuary in Bloemfontein until further notice for violating the Occupational...
Manager jailed after medical supplies fraud ring bust
A logistics manager at a company subcontracted to supply medical equipment to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban has been sentenced to eight...
UK blocks Alzheimer’s ‘wonder drug’ over costs
The most effective drug for Alzheimer’s has been blocked for use on the NHS, banned – despite regulators declaring it safe – because of...
Rwanda’s Marburg wanes as mpox cases increase
While the Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda appears to be on the decline, with no new cases in the past several days, mpox continues...
‘Brain dead’ US man awakens during organ harvesting
An American man who had gone into cardiac arrest and been declared brain dead woke up as surgeons were midway through harvesting his organs for...
‘Race science’ group claims to have accessed sensitive data
Undercover footage has revealed that fringe researchers advocating “nefarious” theories – that intelligence is based on race – claim to have obtained data from...
Egypt now malaria-free
Egypt has become the fourth African country to eradicate malaria, a “disease that plagued pharaohs”, in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) said was...
Germany IDs first case of new mpox variant
Germany has detected its first case of the new mpox variant, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for public health said on Tuesday, after a 33-year-old...
JAMA launches AI website
In acknowledgement of the increasing importance of artificial intelligence in healthcare, a website devoted to research and news related to AI and machine learning...
Why SAMA is staying out of NHI negotiations
The SA Medical Association has ‘deliberately’ not partnered with Business Unity South Africa (Busa), and funders in their ongoing negotiations with President Cyril Ramaphosa...
Minister tweaks community service posts to reduce shortfall
A shortfall in community service posts for doctors and several other disciplines will be adjusted by converting an over-supply in other fields, Health Minister...
AG scathing about R150m health contract
A scathing report from the Auditor-General suggests that the National Department of Health (NDoH) appeared to deliberately evade legislation and regulations to grant a...
KwaZulu-Natal hospital disputes claim of patient neglect
Pietermaritzburg’s Northdale Hospital has denied ignoring the plight of a patient who arrived needing urgent treatment after suffering a seizure.
The family of the patient...
Eastern Cape hospital CEO racks up R574 000 in hotel bills
An Eastern Cape hospital CEO has been staying in hotels since 2022 – at a cost of more than half a million rands –...
KZN hospitals battle monkey menace
Monkeys are running riot in KwaZulu-Natal’s government hospitals, with suggestions to overcome the problem including that staff carry water guns to shoot the cunning...
SIU probes Eastern Cape Health contracts
A total of 19 contracts in the Eastern Cape Department of Health – ranging from cleaning services to meat deliveries – will undergo scrutiny...
Durban doctor leads the way with research on breast cancer trends
A recent study by Durban’s Dr Mpoi Makhetha on breast cancer patients in KwaZulu-Natal is believed to be the first of its kind in...
Parliament staff’s medical tests ‘on hold’
Parliament has suspended the planned medical tests of its 1 200 support staff “pending further review and consultation”, it said, allowing for “thorough engagement...
Tragedy sparks concern over medicinal cannabis oversight
A recent tragic case in Australia has cast a spotlight on the booming but little-policed cannabis industry now being accessed by hundreds of thousands...
GPs urged to test for Fragile X in women
Doctors have been urged to test patients for a genetic condition that is the most common inherited cause of learning disability, with experts saying...
Pepfar chief pushes for extension of programme
USAids relief programme head John Nkengasong is committed to persuading Congress to return to granting a five-year reauthorisation of the programme, he said in...
Cholera warning for Gauteng after river sampling
Communities living along the Harts and Vaal Rivers in Gauteng have been warned that routine raw water sampling last month detected the presence of...
Gauteng Health expands HPV jabs to private schools
Vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) will now be available to girls aged nine to 15 at private schools in the province, Gauteng Health...
Zealand, Boehringer get FDA ‘breakthrough’ status to treat MASH
Denmark’s Zealand Pharma and German partner Boehringer Ingelheim have won the US Food and Drug Administration’s Breakthrough Therapy status for the review of their...