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News Update
Cuban medical school suspends SA students for ‘kidnapping’
An Eastern Cape medical student who was studying in Cuba has pleaded with authorities to allow him to complete his degree after being kicked...
Pharma companies to share data on anti-microbial resistance
Pharmaceutical companies have pledged to share surveillance data on new anti-microbial medicines, such as antibiotics, in a new register launched to combat anti-microbial resistance...
Teens arrested for murder of UFS medical student
Two teenagers, aged 17 and 18, have been arrested in connnection with the murder of medical student Wiseman Mthunzi Zwane, who was stabbed multiple...
R1,2bn shortfall in Gauteng hospital maintenance budget, HRC hears
A senior government officials says budget constraints have led to delays in paying service providers to maintain health facilities in Gauteng.
Bawinile Malope, from them...
Limpopo health chief resigns amid multimillion rand PPE tender probe
Thokozani Mhlongo, head of the Limpopo Health Department, resigned last weekend while she and other officials were being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit...
Arson suspicion in second Charlotte Maxeke fire reignites concerns about its future
The second fire at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) on 5 July has led to renewed questions about progress for the repair and...
Post Office unfit to distribute chronic meds – Pharmacy Association
There has been a surge of protest from pharmacists over the national Health Department’s decision to entrust the South African Post Office with the...
Union plans disruptive protest against Lenmed heart hospital
Routes leading to Durban’s Lenmed eThekwini Hospital and Heart Centre are expected to be the scene of protests on 18 July when the Health...
Continue wearing masks, government warns those at risk
South Africans with comorbidities and those who are ill are encouraged to continue wearing masks, advises the government, warning against complacency since the recent...
Moderna/Pfizer update two vaccines against newer variants
Moderna and rival Pfizer are developing updated vaccines to target the fast-spreading Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which have gained a foothold in the...
Tshwane measles outbreak over – NICD
The measles outbreak in Tshwane is over, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Tuesday, as more than 42 days, or two...
Prioritise cataract surgeries, urge SA experts as backlogs build up
While public health facilities faced backlogs of cataract patients even before the onset of COVID-19, these have since worsened, and doctors say cataract surgery...
Fears for patients’ safety as ‘broken’ NHS mired in staffing crisis
Hospital doctors are being sent home from daytime shifts and told to come back and work overnight in the latest stark illustration of Britain’s...
8,000 jobs on the block with NHS merger
Some 40% of jobs will be lost later this year in the merger between NHS England, Health Education England and NHS Digital.
The jobs being...
Johann Rupert group in Mediclinic takeover bid
A consortium backed by South African billionaire Johann Rupert is preparing a higher takeover bid for Mediclinic, the country’s largest hospital operator, reports News24.
Last...
Prioritise patients, not politicians – DA
Why are ministers exempt from load shedding and hospitals are not? write the DA’s Ghaleb Cachalia and Michele Clarke in Politicsweb.
The DA finds it...
Gauteng Cabinet to meet over ‘I am’ letter about dire hospital conditions
Gauteng Premier David Makhura has said the Cabinet’s Provincial Executive Committee was having a meeting this week to discuss a report on the state...
Cough syrup abuse rife in KZN
South African adolescents are increasingly looking for and experimenting with inexpensive drugs, including over-the-counter cough mixture.
Evidence of this was the recent discovery of thousands...
Ramaphosa urges action to curb teen drinking after tavern tragedy
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to do more to combat under-age drinking in the wake of the Enyobeni tavern tragedy in...
Estcourt Hospital staff lugging buckets from tankers for patients’ baths
Major water shortages in the area resulted in Estcourt Hospital staff in northern KwaZulu-Natal having to boil kettles of water in the kitchen which...
Disabled computers lead to George Mukhari hospital bleeding millions
The computer system at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Gauteng has been out of operation since January, resulting in a revenue loss of...
Gauteng community nurses unpaid for three months – Denosa
The Gauteng Health Department has blamed “administrative challenges” for the fact that young nurses in the province have not been paid for three months.
The...
Nehawu opposes Parliament over COVID mandatory jabs
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has rejected an instruction from Parliament to vaccinate staff for COVID-19 or pay for their...
Free 24/7 telehealth service relaunched in Western Cape
A telehealth service called “Hello Doctor”, first introduced in 2019 and then suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been relaunched by the Western...
Online cannabis clinics cut through the red tape
A new development in SA’s medical marijuana industry is the establishment of the country’s first online cannabis clinics.
It’s a new health tech portal allowing...
Healthcare Funders Board in fresh bid to negotiate prices
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) is once again seeking an exemption from the Competition Act’s prohibition on collective bargaining, arguing that allowing medical...
Phaala warns against prejudice as SA records two monkeypox cases
South Africans should not resort to bigotry around monkeypox, health authorities urged after the country’s first case of the disease was confirmed last week....
Cannabis use on a high after legalisation and lockdown – UN report
Cannabis use has increased in US states that have legalised it, according to a UN report, while COVID-19 lockdowns had a similar effect, swelling...
'Highly unlikely' that teenagers died from tavern generator fumes – Health Department
The results of the autopsy to determine the cause of deaths of 21 young people who died at Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park, East...
Fort Beaufort Hospital sections declared health hazards
A large section of Fort Beaufort Provincial Hospital has been shut down by the Eastern Cape Department of Labour, which has deemed 13 wards...
Eastern Cape nurses down tools, demand rural allowance
About 500 nurses and nursing assistants at six hospitals and clinics under the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape protested on Monday,...
Urgent action needed to reduce teen pregnancies – KZN Premier
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala has called for action to reduce teenage pregnancies in the province, which saw more than 18 000 births by girls...
Pharmacists concerned about Post Office's delivery of chronic meds
The Pharmaceutical Society of SA has expressed concern about the national Health Department’s decision to use the SA Post Office (Sapo) to distribute chronic...
Crime adds to burden carried by SA healthcare workers
The medical profession has emerged from the battering of COVID-19 scarred and shaken – exhausted and overworked; in many cases, under-resourced and under-appreciated, and...
Vital equipment not functioning at military hospital – patients turned away
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is investigating allegations that Wynberg 2 Military Hospital in Cape Town is turning patients away because of...
Ethiopian healthcare buckles under malnutrition crisis
Dubti Hospital, is the only national referral hospital in the Afar region, in northern Ethiopia, has seen admissions of severely malnourished children rise by...
Highest levels yet for concussion rates in elite rugby – union
Concussion rates in elite English rugby, a concern for a number of years, have hit their highest levels since records began, according to the...
Tussle over medical schemes' role could undermine NHI roll-out – NGO research
The current approach to a contentious draft provision in the National Health Insurance (NHI) has the potential to undermine the implementation of the scheme...
Phaahla calls for scrapping of COVID masks, regulations
Health Minister Joe Phaahla has proposed scrapping the coronavirus regulations that require mask wearing indoors, limit the size of gatherings and stipulate testing and...
Free State hospitals: patient waits 7 months for surgery, others sleep in chairs
Surgical waiting lists are not unexpected in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the situation is particularly acute in the Free State, for...