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SA hospital groups pinched as elective surgeries end and occupancies plummet
Though the health-care sector is normally seen as a defensive investment and on the surface should benefit from a health crisis such as the...
Mkhize: State quarantine for all who test positive to COVID-19
In a move that seems certain to be legally tested if carried out, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize now claims everyone who has tested positive...
Govt secrecy over COVID modelling is 'to avoid panic and stigma'
The Presidency says the government's secrecy over the mathematical modelling it has based its COVID-19 policies on, is because it wants to “to avoid...
State agrees to provide reasons for tobacco ban
Government has agreed to provide the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita) with reasons for maintaining the ban on cigarette and tobacco product sales under...
Lab testing delays are impeding contact tracing
COVID-19 results from the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) are taking at least a week to reach patients, while private sector tests are now...
Deaths may top 88,000 but lockdown disaster dwarfs COVID-19, say SA actuaries
If South Africa’s present economically restrictive lockdown measures are not discontinued immediately, they may cause 29 times more deaths than the measures aim to...
MPS wants 'prosecutorial restraint' over charges against SA doctors during COVID-19 crisis
While the announcement that the Health Professions Council of SA would consider complaints against doctors in the context of the "very challenging" circumstances of...
SA guidelines for triage of critically ill patients in COVID-19 pandemic
Guidelines for the triage of critically ill patients if the COVID-19 public health emergency creates demand for critical care resources (ventilators, critical care beds)...
Dis-Chem: Competition Commission is scapegoating us on price gouging
Dis-Chem, answering a case of price gouging, has accused the Competition Commission of “scapegoating” the pharmaceutical retailer to show the public that it can...
Former head of NICD says SA's COVID-19 modelling 'flawed and illogical'
The modelling of how many people would contract COVID-19 and die was “flawed and illogical and made wild assumptions”. The Financial Mail reports that...
Mkhize hints at further easing of lockdown?
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize might be hinting that the lockdown will be further eased, when he explained at a media briefing that scientific models...
'Furious' Mkhize steps in to bolster Eastern Cape's 'weak' efforts to fight COVID-19
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has been forced to take dramatic steps to bolster Nelson Mandela Bay's fight against COVID-19, after it emerged in a...
GEMS expects to spend around R900m on beneficiaries with COVID-19
The Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) actuaries estimates that it will spend around R900m for the care and treatment of GEMS beneficiaries who will...
Mkhize gets sweeping powers to redeploy doctors, nurses and health personnel
Health minister Zweli Mhize has published new regulations that give the government sweeping powers to redeploy doctors, nurses and other health-care personnel to combat...
Traditional leaders reject SA govt ban on winter circumcision season
The SA government has banned traditional circumcision for the upcoming winter season, raising the ire of traditional leaders, reports Times Select.
The Department of Co-operative...
Red tape prevents foreign-trained medics joining SA's COVID-19 fight
More than 450 foreign-trained medical professionals say red tape is preventing them joining South Africa's coronavirus fight. The Times reports that writing in the...
12 staff test positive at third COVID-infected private hospital
Following last week's shut down of Netcare's St Augustine's Hospital in Durban because of a COVID-19 outbreak that claimed five lives and this week's...
'Disingenuous' Limpopo Health MEC releases forcibly quarantined doctors
Two doctors forcibly quarantine in a Limpopo hospital after testing positive for COVD-19 have been freed, but may pursue legal action against the provincial...
HPCSA slow to respond to urgent need to mobilise extra healthcare personnel
SA's medical regulator, which for weeks delayed the move to telemedicine to deal with COVID-19, has been slow to mobilise the skills of the...
SA has less than half the ventilators it will need, says Health Department
South Africa has less than half the ventilators that the health department estimates it will be needed to treat patients at the peak of...
Durban hospital's crisis after 5 die and 66 test positive for COVID-19
Netcare's St Augustine's Hospital in Durban has been closed by the KwaZulu-Natal Health, except for a single ward where existing COVID-19 patients are...
SA'S Covid-19 situation — April 9, 2020
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has reported that the number of COVID-19 infections in the country had increased by almost a hundred, to 1,845....
SAMA unhappy over medical schemes' low virtual consultation rates
Doctors in private practice, who have already seen a decline in patient visits due to fears of COVID-19 transmission, now face a fresh challenge...
Health system at risk as virus spreads among health workers
The SA Medical Association has warned, as the virus spreads among health workers, that if more doctors and nurses are infected at work and have to...
Medical bodies slam HPCSA over 'wrong and dangerous' telemedicine ban
Medical organisations – including the SA Medical Association (Sama), the Board of Healthcare Funders of SA, the Health Funders Association, the SA Private Practitioners...
Union threatens legal action over lack of protective gear for health workers
South Africa’s biggest public sector union, Nehawu, has threatened Health Minister Zweli Mkhize with court action, accusing his department of allegedly forcing some health...
Business contributes additional billions to fight SA's COVID-19 outbreak
The Solidarity Fund announced on 30 March that it would be using a portion of the R500m raised during its first week of operations...
SA bans export of goods that may be required to counter the pandemic
A ban has been placed on exporting a long list of goods required domestically as South Africa deals with the COVID-19 epidemic, reports Pam...
SA suppliers race against time to secure essential medical equipment
South Africa is in a life-or-death race to secure essential medical equipment before a surge in COVID-19 patients is expected to hit hospitals in...
SA health regulator gives emergency go-ahead for chloroquine importation
A local pharmaceutical company has received permission from the medical regulator to import half a million chloroquine phosphate tablets for use in severely ill...
SA authorities provide trade finance to import essential medical products
A special package of R500m has been set aside for trade finance to import essential medical products to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Polity reports...
'No private healthcare pushback' on Competition Commission's report
The Competition Commission has indicated there has been no push-back by private health-care companies after the tabling of a damning report into their conduct....
Health Department will investigate CGE's report into involuntary sterilisation
The Health Department will investigate allegations that women living with HIV were coerced to undergo involuntary sterilisation, reports News24. Last month, the Commission for...
Parliamentary summons for Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University
Allegations of maladministration and governance challenges at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) have caught the attention of Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher...
13 South Africans now diagnosed with COVID-19
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mhize has announced that six new cases of coronavirus had been confirmed. The Citizen reports that the new cases raise...
CMS outlines how medical schemes must cover COVID-19 tests and treatment
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has outlined how the country’s medical schemes must offer cover for the virus. Business Tech reports that in...
SA private labs now offer coronavirus test
As of Monday this week, South Africans can walk into private laboratories for a coronavirus test without it being done via the National Institute...
SA pharma on alert for COVID-19 disruption of supplies from Asia
Pharmaceutical companies are closely monitoring the potential effect of the coronavirus on the supply of medicines and raw materials sourced from Asia, South Africa’s...
Parliamentary committee concerns over 'challenges' in NHI pilots phase
The Portfolio Committee on Health has been briefed by the Health Department at Parliament on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Pilot Districts Evaluation Report....
Durban gynaecologist seriously injured in assault by dead patient's family
A female gynaecologist at a Lenmed hospital in Durban was seriously injured in an assault by the family a patient she had operated on,...