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KZN Health officials in Public Protector's firing line
The Public Protector has released a report with damning findings against KwaZulu-Natal Health over alleged tender irregularities in the procurement of four mobile health...
Mkhize: NHI will be run with 'efficiency and integrity' of Road Accident Fund
SA's Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says the National Health Insurance programme "will be run with the same efficiency and integrity" as the Road...
Hospital security fails yet again with another patient shot dead in Durban
Brazen attacks on patients and staff continue with apparent impunity, with a patient shot dead in a Durban hospital, writes MedicalBrief. A report...
Woman gives birth in taxi after clinic admission is refused
Two nurses from Buxedene Clinic, near Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal, have been suspended for allegedly failing to assist a pregnant woman who then gave birth...
KZN Health welcomes controversial Gauteng 'payment in kind' ruling
KZN Health has welcomed a controversial recent Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) ruling that Gauteng Health will no longer have to fork out large cash...
Eastern Cape Health report highlights scale initiation death crisis
A recently released document from Eastern Cape Health shows the horrifying scale of the initiation death crisis in the province, where 816 initiates have...
Warrants of arrest issued for paediatric surgeon and anaesthetist
Warrants of arrest have been issued for paediatric surgeon Dr Peter Beale and anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi, reports News24. Beale and Munshi are accused...
As deaths mount, a call for medical circumcision to replace the traditional
Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital head of urology Dr Mbuyiselo Madiba has called for traditional circumcision in the Eastern Cape to be banned for a...
Traditional leaders want more policing, following death of 7 more initiates
Eastern Cape chair of the House of Traditional Leaders, Nkosi Mwelo Nonkonyana, has called for the intensification of monitoring interventions, including more resources for...
Concern over 'soaring' baby deaths at Gauteng hospital
Baby deaths have soared at Dr George Mukhari Hospital, near Ga-Rankuwa north of Pretoria, in the past five years, while the number of babies...
Spate of attacks reveal training failure of hospital security guards
With another spate of attacks at Eastern Cape hospitals and clinics this weekend, concerns are being raised over the training of security guards at...
Gauteng surgeon under investigation withdraws from award ceremony
Organisers of a ceremony recognising the work of Gauteng's paediatric doctors have announced that surgeon Professor Peter Beale has withdrawn from the awards. The...
Mkhize again moots a cap on medical claims, as they reach a record R100bn
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is proposing a law that would put a cap on medical claims against the state after they shot up to...
Cuban medical training costs more than double than in SA
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says the annual cost of doctor training in Cuba is R331,000 per person – more than double what it would...
Discovery rejects 'flawed' race bias findings
Discovery Health has hit back at expert testimony before the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) which claimed widespread race bias "in the outcome" of...
Most of R11.4bn vaccine contract goes to state-backed developer
State-backed vaccine developer Biovac has secured the lion’s share of the government’s new R11.4bn contract to supply childhood vaccines, ending months of uncertainty about...
'Widespread and consistent' racial bias by top medical schemes
There was "widespread and consistent" evidence of discrimination in the outcome of investigations into fraud, waste and abuse by the top three medical schemes,...
Hawks clamp down on cannabis dispensaries
Canapax, South Africa’s first chain of franchised cannabis shops faces collapse after its founder was raided and arrested, reports the Saturday Star. The Hawks...
Motsoaledi testifies in businessman's murder case
Former Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has taken the stand in the Free State High Court and denied any involvement in the bribery and...
Top Medscheme job for man who interfered with RAF tender
After being found to have interfered in a tender process of more than R120m, the former CFO, third in command of the beleaguered Road...
Mediclinic takes a pragmatic position on NHI, says CEO
South Africa’s biggest private hospital group, Mediclinic International, is taking a pragmatic view on the government’s plans for universal health coverage, saying it poses...
CMS makes U-turn on large co-payments ban
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has made a U-turn on its more than two-year process to ban large co-payments for medical scheme members...
GEMS' private healthcare benefit criticised in light of NHI
Trade union Solidarity has criticised the recent decision by the government’s biggest medical scheme to guarantee private hospital care to all its members, saying...
'Sidelined' National Health DG leaves by 'mutual agreement'
National Health Department director-general Malebona Precious Matsoso, who last year complained that she had been "completely sidelined" over the NHI Bill, by has left...
SAHPRA warning: Still a 'serious offence' to deal in cannabis
South Africa’s medicines regulator and the police have warned the public that marketing and selling cannabis products remains illegal, except for specific conditions permitted...
3 832 die in Gauteng’s public hospitals from 'negligent' SAEs
A total of 3 832 patients died last year in Gauteng public hospitals as a result of 10,741 serious adverse events (SAEs), which the...
Private sector asks SANC to be allowed to train more nurses
Private hospitals have appealed to the SA Nursing Council (SANC) to allow them to train more nurses, warning that the decision to restrict...
100,000 submissions on NHI but Parliament hasn't yet read one
The Portfolio Committee on Health has received about 100,000 submissions on the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, but is yet to read one....
Call for an end to Remunerative Work Outside Public Service by specialists
One in three specialists on the government's payroll also work in the private sector and abuse of the system is leaving state patients suffering,...
Doctors' union under administration following battle with SAMA
The South African Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) has been placed under administration by the Labour Court following a protracted battle over the independence...
SA's radiologists flocking to write equivalency exams in UK, Australia and NZ
Up to 80% of South Africa's radiologists are considering emigrating, according to a new Radiology Society of SA survey, cited in the Financial Mail.
The...
The next step in implementing NHI…
The next step in the introduction of National Health Insurance will be to ‘operationalise’ the presidential health compact, the recommendations of the 2018 SA...
President orders SIU probe into corruption at SAHPRA
The Special Investigating Unit will probe allegations of maladministration at the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), Fin24 reports President Cyril Ramaphosa's gazetted...
Medical schemes still short-changing members over PMBs – CMS
Medical schemes continue to fail to pay or short-pay members' claims for prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs), sparking almost half of all complaints to the...
Wits denies review of Cohen medical exam marking method
The University of the Witwatersrand has denied newspaper claims that it is reviewing the Cohen 60 marking assessment method, saying "no decision ... political...
Inquiry told schemes may have missed 'implicit racial bias'
While medical schemes were apparently “at pains” to avoid any obvious racial profiling, attempts to be colour blind may have had the unintended effect...
Provincial health departments owe R9.5bn in unpaid invoices
Government debt in unpaid business invoicse has increased since March, with provincial health departments the worst offenders, owing R9.5bn, says the Democratic Alliance.
Leon Schreiber,...
Practitioner burnout contributing to clinical errors — MPS survey
Over a third of both doctors and dentists suspect that emotional exhaustion has contributed to a clinical error, according to a Medical Protection Society...
Solidarity denounces SA Pharmacy Council's 'veiled threat' regarding NHI
The Solidarity Occupational Guild for Health Care Professionals has strongly denounced the South African Pharmacy Council’s “apparent veiled threat” as far as the National...
Aspen's 1,800% price-hike collusion windfall from NHS
SA pharma Aspen's admitted price collusion with two other pharams - for which it must pay the UK's National Health Service £8m (R149m) -...