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News Update
Gauteng hospitals postpone elective surgeries
A number of state hospitals in Gauteng have put elective surgeries on the back burner until the next financial year, but this will only...
Pietermaritzburg ambulance shortage at crisis point
A chronic shortage of state ambulances in Pietermaritzburg means critically ill patients are being left stranded and paramedics are fearing for their lives, with...
Young dentist hit and killed by Ferrari driver
Family and friends are mourning the loss of Durban dentist Dr Ncumisa Mdlokolo (32) who was hit and killed in Cape Town a week...
Medical profession alarmed by Kennedy’s racist theories
President Donald Trump’s choice of Robert F Kennedy to become America’s leading health official has caused consternation.
His theory, for instance, that black people have...
Penile rehab programme for botched circumcisions
After hundreds of botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, the provincial Health Department has launched an expanded programme to help young men whose male...
Medical equipment, dental amalgam on new mercury ban list
Medical products are among those on a list of items banned in terms of regulations for the management of mercury in South Africa, which...
Concern as Guillain-Barre syndrome cases rise in India
A six-year old boy is among around 160 reported cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) since early January in Pune, India.
GBS, a rare disorder where...
Healthy babies aborted after scan misdiagnosis in new NHS scandal
An investigation has found that two British couples each made the decision to have a healthy foetus aborted because they were wrongly informed that...
Chinese regulator defends quality of local generic drugs
China’s healthcare regulator has defended the efficacy of off-patent medicines it had approved to be distributed through the country’s state hospitals – after complaints...
Sepsis and necrosis after butt-lifts, UK investigation finds
A British “beauty consultant” is carrying out potentially dangerous cosmetic procedures – many of which result in disfiguring infection and needing surgery – and...
Fat-burning jabs, steroids seized in police raid
Police have arrested a gang in Pretoria that was selling illicit drugs online, seizing a substantial quantity of counterfeit and illicit performance-enhancing drugs, steroids,...
Mother, baby die as doctors watch YouTube to perform C-section
A bereaved husband has described how a medical team at Lebechi Hospital in Owerri, Nigeria, reportedly watched a YouTube tutorial while performing a Caesarean...
Mitral clip implant first for Charlotte Maxeke Hospital
Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has become the first government health facility in Gauteng to perform the MitraClip implant, a procedure designed to treat...
Netcare CEO delays retirement – again
Long-serving Netcare CEO Richard Friedland, who was due to retire shortly, has had his contract extended again after a selected candidate identified for his...
Reprieve for medical aids with NHI 'breakthrough'?
The government of national unity (GNU) has apparently quietly reached an “agreement” on two key aspects relating to National Health Insurance (NHI) which, if...
Unemployed doctors call for firing of Finance Minister
Fed-up and desperate unemployed health graduates are calling for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s head, saying he should be fired for his failure to increase...
Pharmacists obliged to dispense abortion drugs if prescribed, council warns
The South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) has issued a notice confirming pharmacists may not – based on personal beliefs, moral reasons or religious grounds...
Gauteng cancer patients still awaiting lifesaving treatment
Thousands of cancer patients – and advocacy groups – in Gauteng are still waiting in vain for news about treatment, despite the provincial Health...
Contractor linked to Health DG bribery claims wins dodgy hospital tender
The hospital contract at the centre of graft allegations against Department of Health DG Sandile Buthelezi was awarded in highly suspicious circumstances, reports Daily...
Gauteng’s compulsory teen contraception slammed as 'unlawful'
A plan by Gauteng Health & Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko to roll out compulsory contraceptive implants for schoolgirls across the province has run into...
SA’s medical aid members at tipping point, AfriForum warns
Rising medical aid costs and the possible end to tax credits on medical aid contributions could be the breaking point for many South Africans,...
Frustrated locals shut down ‘decaying’ Limpopo clinic
Fed up with a lack of action from Limpopo’s Health Department, which has been accused of not taking the community seriously, angry residents barricaded...
‘Bionic eye’ surgeries at Tygerberg gives the gift of sight
After being blind for years, two patients recently each received an artificial cornea at Tygerberg Hospital, and specialists say that thanks to private sponsor...
Ugandan nurse dies in first Ebola outbreak in two years
A nurse in Uganda has died of Ebola in the first recorded fatality since the country’s last outbreak of the disease ended in early 2023, a...
NHS opens teenage vaping clinic
In the first of its kind in England, the NHS has opened a stop-vaping clinic for Liverpool teenagers in efforts to curb the rise...
Pretoria clinic guard shot during break-in
A female security guard working at Hercules Clinic in Pretoria was shot and injured during an attempt by robbers to gain access into a...
Disability Data Initiative launches dataset to advance disability rights
The Disability Data Initiative (DDI) has launched two pioneering databases to address one of the most significant barriers to disability inclusion: the lack of...
Medical aids turn to court in long-running battle for low cost options
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) will go to court in efforts to legally compel the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) to allow cheaper...
SAMA writes to President as more jobless doctors protest
A group of 150 or so unemployed KwaZulu-Natal doctors staged a sit-in outside the provincial Health Department’s headquarters in Pietermaritzburg on Monday, warning that...
Eastern Cape doctors dig in their heels over no overtime pay
As the health system risks buckling under the pressure of budget constraints, Eastern Cape doctors are now refusing to work additional overtime without compensation.
They...
Blow to BHF over collective pricing and PMBs
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has been unsuccessful in attempts to get the Competition Commission to allow its members to collectively negotiate with...
Community health workers to be made permanent
The Johannesburg Labour Court has ruled that community health workers who have been employed by the National Department of Health for years on recurring...
NICD issues diphtheria alert
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has issued an alert on respiratory diphtheria, which it says has been present since 2024, particularly in...
PwC probes multimillion oxygen plants project
A forensic investigation is to be carried out by PwC – which has been appointed by the Department of Public Works – into the...
SIU seeks R33.4m from SANDF-Cuban deal for useless drug
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) aims to recover R33.4m the SANDF handed over to the Cuban Government for the “immune-boosting” drug Interferon alfa-2b during...
USA rejoins anti-abortion group
The United States plans to rejoin an international anti-abortion pact alongside countries like Uganda, Saudi Arabia and Belarus, with the Trump administration taking its...
Green light from FDA for breast cancer treatment
The Food & Drug Administration has approved a new treatment for American patients with a common form of breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the...
CIA about-turn on Covid-19 origin
In a change of mindset, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has said it was more likely that a laboratory leak caused the Covid-19 pandemic...
Moderna gets millions for mRNA jab against future pandemics
In the final days of the Biden administration, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $590m to Moderna to expedite development...
Call for security at 24-hour clinics to be in-sourced
Clinics operating on a 24-hour basis should have in-sourced security, with surveillance cameras and panic buttons, Denosa President Simon Hlungwani says, calling on government...