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News Update
Anaesthetist’s name omitted from memorial at Netcare helicopter crash site
When a memorial was unveiled yesterday (Wednesday 23 February) and tribute was paid to the crew that died a year ago in a Netcare...
SAMA chair Dr Angelique Coetzee resigns
Dr Angelique Coetzee, the chairperson of the South African Medical Association (SAMA) board, has stepped down from the position with immediate effect.
Previously, the SAMA...
Hospital Association ‘perplexed’ by omission of medical skills from Critical Skills List
Hospital Association of SA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dumisani Bomela, says HASA is “perplexed” by the omission of medical skills, in particular nurses and...
1 Military Hospital: Top officials liable for R156m in irregular expenditure
Despite more than R411m being spent on the Department of Public Works’ repair and maintenance programme at One Military Hospital (Pretoria) between 2006 and...
Report exposes 'widespread and overwhelming' racial discrimination in NHS
Racism, discrimination and poor ethnicity data have for years “negatively impacted” the health of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in England and radical...
MRC: Pandemic deaths approach 300,000 mark, triple SA’s official tally
When excess deaths are factored in, a SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) calculates that early 300,000 people have died from COVID-19 in South Africa...
Turkish man tests positive for COVID for 14 straight months; remains isolated
When Muzaffer Kayasan first caught COVID-19, he thought he was destined to die as he already had leukaemia. Fourteen months and 78 straight positive...
Eastern Cape Health owes R3bn, causing unpaid contractors to halt services
Unpaid service providers at Eastern Cape hospitals have halted their services, putting patients’ lives at risk.
Provincial health said it owed creditors more than R3bn,...
Scepticism from EU experts over abolition of all COVID curbs in England
Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to abolish all COVID regulations in England, including the need to isolate after testing positive, from...
UK’s Chief Medical Officers issue first exercise guidelines for disabled children
Britain’s chief medical officers have recommended that disabled children and young people, who are often overlooked during the COVID pandemic, should do 20 minutes...
WHO chief calls for Trips waiver and praises SA’s vaccine development project
On a high-level visit to Cape Town this past weekend (11/12 February) with a delegation comprising European diplomats and South African ministers, the World Health...
New Critical Skills List records no shortage of medical skills in South Africa
It’s official, writes Peta Lee for MedicalBrief. There is no shortage of medical skills in South Africa. The latest Home Affairs Critical Skills List,...
SAHPRA comes under pressure over illegality of home testing
Rapid home tests for COVID antibodies are used widely in the UK, the US and many European countries, as they are cheap, easy to...
KZN Health’s turnaround plan labelled an ‘attack on lives’
A cost-cutting plan drawn up by the financially struggling KZN Department of Health has been criticised by the SA Medical Association (SAMA), labour parties,...
SAHPRA approves Chinese COVID vaccine Sinopharm for use in SA
The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has registered Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharm, effectively clearing the way for its use in the country.
In a...
Gauteng Health fails to pay full January salaries to dozens of doctors
Despite working long hours and over the 80-hour overtime limit for the month, dozens of doctors working for Gauteng Health did not receive their...
New penalties for those who refuse to be vaccinated
The negative implications of being unvaccinated are manifesting in unexpected ways, writes MedicalBrief. In the US, a patient has been refused a heart transplant...
UK government backs down on mandatory Covid vaccinations for NHS staff
A contentious legal requirement for frontline NHS workers in England to be fully vaccinated against COVID by 1 April, and to have their first...
CGE retracts on COVID vaccine's supposed effect on women’s reproductive health
In an about-turn, the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has withdrawn its statement that COVID-19 vaccines have an impact on women’s reproductive health, following...
NHS to use genetic analysis to match more cancer patients to clinical trials
In a significant breakthrough, thousands of NHS cancer patients, who have exhausted all other options, are being offered liquid biopsy blood tests to match...
Donations plea to fund Groote Schuur’s 6,000 surgery patients’ backlog
A Surgery Recovery Project has been launched by Groote Schuur Hospital in partnership with humanitarian group Gift of the Givers to raise R10m to...
Landmark CCMA decision on dismissal of employee refusing vaccination
In what appears to be a landmark decision, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has ruled that a company’s decision to fire...
Accepting the virus: Europe under pressure to shift its COVID-19 strategy
The European Union is under pressure from some member countries like Spain and Portugal – as well as from growing population resistance to onerous...
Most State of Disaster restrictions 'unfit for purpose', say SA's top health experts
End all curfews, school and outdoor activity restrictions, and do away compulsory mask-wearing outdoors. And stop the “hygiene theatre” at many workplaces, venues and...
Only one paediatric ICU in UK is fully staffed with specialist nurses – PICANet report
The UK’s paediatric intensive care units (PICU) that are struggling with severe shortages of specialist nurses, with only one PICU in the entire country...
Latest CDC COVID-19 travel risk list: South Africa more dangerous than Zim and Mozambique
The US Centres For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued its updated list of COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Destinations. South Africa is on the...
Soon-Shiong launches new vaccine manufacturing plant in SA
President Cyril Ramaphosa has given weight to the policy of vaccine self-reliance in SA and Africa broadly with the launch of the NantSA vaccine...
Strict new vaccine law and hefty penalties approved by French government
Franceʼs parliament approved a law on Sunday (16 January) that will exclude unvaccinated people from all restaurants, sports arenas and other venues, in government...
Warnings of ‘catastrophe’ as 80,000 unvaccinated NHS workers face dismissal
More than 80,000 unvaccinated “patient-facing” staff —about 6% of the NHS’s workforce — face dismissal at the end of March if not vaccinated by...
Monthly fines for unvaccinated over-60 Greeks
Greece has imposed a vaccine mandate for people 60 and older as a spike in infections exerts pressure on local hospitals, where most of...
Ethiopia pulls support for Ghebreyesus for second WHO term
Ethiopia’s government has said it will not support the re-election of Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus for his second term as DG of the World Health...
WHO condemns attacks on Sudanese doctors and medical staff
Dozens of Sudanese doctors have demonstrated in Khartoum, protesting attacks by security forces against medical personnel and doctors during pro-democracy rallies opposed to the...
Home testing is ‘single most powerful tool' in reducing COVID transmission’
Mass home use of self-administered lateral flow tests have been “the single most powerful tool in reducing transmission of the virus,” says Prof Irene...
University protests loom as students reject mandatory vaccines
Student protests could be on the card for Wits University, with the Student Representative Council (SRC) remaining adamant that the mandatory vaccine policy violates...
Africa CDC says stringent lockdown no longer a tool to contain COVID-19
Despite global opinion that COVID-19 could become endemic, particularly on this continent, Africa’s top public health official said last Thursday (6 January) that severe...
Trainee doctors in Eastern Cape petition for jobs
A number of junior doctors, who have completed their studies and community service in the Eastern Cape, have sent a petition to the SA...
UK vaccination committee says 4th booster not necessary
British government advisers have recommended against giving a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to nursing home residents and people over 80 because data show...
DoH warns of chaos if calls to end State of Disaster are heeded
With the end of South Africa’s current national State of Disaster due in a few days, a number of scientists and politicians have called...
Bed shortage has patients sleeping on floors at Northdale Hospital, PMB
Patients are being given medical treatment and having drips administered while on benches, in wheelchairs and on the floor at Maritzburg’s Northdale Hospital, which...
Patient, nurses, attacked at Mediclinic Brits by man wielding drip stand
A patient has been left traumatised, dependent on sleeping pills, after she and three nurses were attacked by another patient wielding his drip stand.
Hazel...