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Thursday, 12 February, 2026

FOCUS: PUBLIC HEALTH

Call for ‘heartless’ MEC’s axing after ‘sleeping on the floor’ comment

Venilla Yoganathan - 0
In a Marie Antoinette-style “let them eat cake” PR disaster, the head of Gauteng Health has come in for scathing criticism after denying that provincial hospitals have an overcrowding crisis, and saying that some patients “simply prefer sleeping on the floor”. MedicalBrief reports that Health & Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko’s “thoughtless, cynical, heartless and heartbreaking” comments comes shortly after she hailed the return of the suspended former head of her department to work despite his having been flagged by the...
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NEWS UPDATE

ConCourt shifts focus in NHI assent challenge

Organisations questioning President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assent to the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill heard this week that the Constitutional Court first wants to hear from those challenging Parliament’s public participation process on the contentious legislation. Business Day reports that this pivots the spotlight away from whether Ramaphosa made a rational decision in signing the NHI Act almost two years ago, to the extent to which MPs considered input from stakeholders when they processed the law. Eight organisations have launched legal action against the Act since it was signed into law in May 2024. Originally, the Constitutional Court was intending to hear an appeal...

Pharmacy firms face Competition Commission probe

The Competition Commission is investigating several pharmaceutical manufacturers after a complaint from the Health Department. Business Day reports that the companies include Ascendis, Pharma Q and Sonke, according to Competition Commission spokesperson Siyabulela Makunga. He confirmed an investigation is under way but declined to elaborate on the allegations levelled against the firms, saying only the investigation was at an early stage. Ascendis delisted from the JSE last year, Pharma Q is partly owned by Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer Micro Labs, and Sonke is a subsidiary of Indian generic drug maker Sun Pharma. All three companies supply medicines to the state. The Competition Commission...

Sizwe Hosmed now under fire from CMS

Troubled Sizwe Hosmed medical scheme, already floundering under curatorship, is now under fire from the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), which has accused it of multiple irregularities, reports Business Day. The allegations include payouts for duplicate claims that potentially run to more than R500 000, procurement irregularities, and misuse of the scheme’s corporate credit card by its former principal officer. The scheme’s administrator, 3Sixty Health, and former principal officer Simon Mangcwatywa, have denied the allegations levelled at them. CMS Registrar Musa Gumede filed an affidavit last week in response to an application launched by Sizwe Hosmed’s former board of trustees seeking to...

Livingstone Hospital evicts 50 nurses

More than 50 nurses have been evicted from what was meant to be temporary accommodation at Livingstone Hospital, forcing many to scramble for places in nearby townships they say are unsafe and unaffordable, reports Central News. The Eastern Cape Department of Health said the limited – and temporary – accommodation is meant for short-term stays only, designed for those in real need, like trainees or short-term staff. After getting a court order from the Eastern Cape High Court (Gqeberha) in October last year, the department had warned the nurses they had to be out by 31 January 2026 at the latest....

Nelson Mandela Bay doctor accused of raping teen

A doctor in Nelson Mandela Bay, who is employed in a government hospital, appeared in the Kariega Magistrate’s Court on Monday accused of luring a 17-year-old girl to his house and raping her. The Herald reports that members of the community who had gathered in protest outside the court claimed the girl was not his first victim. The group of Bayland informal settlement residents, led by community activist Tamsanqa Nkevu, had marched to the KwaDwesi police station where they handed over a petition demanding an investigation into further allegations of child prostitution and human trafficking of girls aged 13 to 16...

Cape doctor wins half a million in Labour Court battle

The Cape Town Labour Court has dismissed an application by the provincial Department of Health to appeal a ruling finding the precautionary suspension of a doctor was unfair, with Acting Judge Coen De Kock saying there was no reasonable prospects that another court would conclude differently. The Cape Argus reports that the court also rejected a conditional cross-appeal by Dr Kwazi Celani Zwakele Ndlovu, who had argued that the compensation awarded to him was insufficient. Ndlovu had been put on precautionary suspension in August 2021, after he served a letter of demand on colleagues linked to a contemplated civil defamation claim. This...

First Eastern Cape public IVF clinic opens

Eastern Cape Health has just launched the province’s first public in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic, which opened at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha last week, reports News24. One of only five public facilities in South Africa offering IVF services, the clinic is fully equipped and operational, supported by a specialised multidisciplinary team, with two reproductive medicine sub-specialists, an embryologist, and three advanced midwife nurses. The only central hospital in the province, Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital serves as the primary referral centre for rural and remote communities, and caters to about 3.6m people. Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa said the IVF clinic would address...

KZN MEC stands by claims about private paramedics

KwaZulu-Natal Transport & Human Settlements MEC Siboniso Duma has said he will not retract his remarks or apologise for insulting private paramedics, reports News24. Duma's comments related to a recent Isipingo crash that claimed 11 lives, with the MEC saying – at a media briefing – that some ambulance services, including ALS Paramedics Medical Services – were insensitive and refused to help patients without medical aid. According to the department’s spokesperson, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, Duma stood by his words and would not apologise. In a legal letter, ALS has rejected the MEC’s claims, describing them as “false, vexatious and defamatory”. The private paramedic...

USAID dismantling could mean 9.4m deaths by 2030 – Lancet study

It’s been one year since the Trump administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID), with aid cuts leading to the closure of HIV clinics in South Africa, the termination of medical programmes in Afghanistan, and the end of numerous programmes tackling malnutrition and preventable diseases around the world. The slashing of US foreign assistance was followed by cuts by the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and other developed nations, due to take effect this year and next year, compounding the impact, reports CNN. Now, a study published in The Lancet aims to quantify the human toll of those budget decisions – projecting...

WHO flags data risks with rapid escalation of AI in healthcare

A WHO report on a five-year digital transformation strategy framework was the focus of a debate last week over who owns the data in the future of AI and digital health, and the potential for risks without representative, reliable data, while healthcare staff poaching and dodgy medications also came under the spotlight, reports Health Policy Watch. At the World Health Organisation (WHO) executive board meeting, low and middle-income countries warned that the rapid deployment of new technologies risked accelerating data extraction and increasing inequality, cautioning that without strict AI governance, sustainable financing and equitable guardrails, the implementation of AI in health...

US threatens Gavi over vaccines ingredient

The US Government has threatened to withdraw all future funding unless Gavi, the vaccine alliance, removes the ingredient thimerosal from its vaccines. This comes just as Gavi and its partners resume distribution of cholera vaccination supplies to several African countries. NPR reports that central to the ultimatum from the US Department of Health and Human Services to the group, which helps provide vaccines to the world’s poorest countries, is an unsubstantiated theory that the mercury in thimerosal could be linked to autism. Thimerosal is a chemical compound that is added to vaccines as a preservative. This is the latest development in the...

Hospitals, clinics, battered by Limpopo floods

Persistent heavy rains and flooding have caused extensive damage to a number of health facilities in Limpopo, leaving some partially inaccessible while others are operating in precarious conditions, reports Health-e News. Safety and security have also been compromised at some of them, with the perimeter fence collapsing at Tswinga Clinic, outside Thohoyandou, exposing the staff to criminal activity. “Clinics are often targeted, and we are worried about a repeat of incidents like the one at Chuene Clinic last year, where nurses were abducted, robbed and raped. Anyone can now walk into the clinic,” said one nurse, adding that staff continue to...

Japan to start Nipah virus human vaccine trial

A team of researchers in Japan has announced a clinical trial to confirm a vaccine’s efficacy against the deadly Nipah virus in humans, for which there is currently no treatment. NDTV reports that clinical trials of the vaccine candidate, developed at the University of Tokyo, will begin in Belgium in April, offering a potential breakthrough against a disease whose fatality rate is estimated to be between 40% and 75%. India reported two confirmed cases of Nipah virus from West Bengal in January, and authorities have been on alert since then. The scientists said the new vaccine is reportedly being developed by inserting...

EthiQal Recognition Programme launches

The newly launched, first of its kind, EthiQal Recognition Programme strives to acknowledge professional conduct that reflects a commitment to the delivery of excellent patient care and the reduction of medico-legal risk. It is aimed at specialist clinicians in private practice and is based on a point system where defined activities qualify for set points that over time convert to premium refunds. The programme underpins EthiQal’s pledge to promoting high-quality healthcare, supporting practitioners in building successful safe practices and managing their medico-legal risk, and aligning individual practitioners’ professional indemnity premiums with their unique insurance risk. How the programme works and which activities...

MEDICO-LEGAL

First malpractice verdict filed against child’s gender-affirming surgeries

A New York jury has returned a verdict against two healthcare workers who provided gender-affirming care to a minor in what is believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind, reports Becker’s Hospital Review. Filed in September 2023 in Westchester Supreme Court, the lawsuit centred on inadequate communication between a New York psychologist, Kenneth Einhorn, PhD, and plastic surgeon Simon Chin, MD. Fox Varian, a 22-year-old who underwent a double mastectomy in 2019, accused the healthcare providers of deviating from the standard of care and failing to obtain adequate consent. According to The New York Times, at 15, Varian began questioning...

Fake doctor charged with assault, kidnapping after botched op

A Massachusetts woman is facing multiple charges after impersonating a doctor and performing plastic surgery on a woman who has been left permanently scarred. People reports that Dingrui Wang (34) allegedly performed a double eyelid blepharoplasty procedure in January 2020 after representing herself as a licensed physician, despite not holding a Massachusetts physician’s license. She allegedly injected a local anaesthetic and non-FDA-approved dermal fillers into the victim’s eyelids during the procedure, causing permanent scarring. After the surgery on the first eyelid, the victim had attempted to leave the building but was pushed back on to the table by Wang and prevented from...

SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE PAST WEEK

CARDIOVASCULAR

Statin pills safer than advertised, major British review finds

Cholesterol-lowering statins, used by millions, are far safer than previously thought, a major review has found, with the authors suggesting packaging leaflets should be changed to reflect this and...

GYNAECOLOGY

Fallopian tubes removal cuts ovarian cancer risk – Canada corroboration

A team of Canada scientists has provided more evidence that fallopian tube removal can slash the risks of ovarian cancer risk, finding women who underwent opportunistic bilateral salpingectomy (OBS)...

PAEDIATRICS

High deaths rates among starving Limpopo children – Wits study

Thousands of South African children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), say concerned experts, calling for urgent review of data quality and reporting systems. Targeted interventions addressing both clinical...

NEUROLOGY

Brain benefits of cannabis for older adults – US study

A recent study is challenging long-held assumptions about cannabis, finding that middle-aged and older adults who use the drug may actually see some brain and cognitive benefits, reports the...

ONCOLOGY

Surprising link between aspirin, cancer deaths – ASPREE trial follow-up

A team of researchers has suggested that low-dose aspirin was not associated with a reduced incidence of cancer in older adults, but was associated with an increased risk of...

ABOUT US

MedicalBrief is Africa’s authoritative weekly digest of medical matters, both on the continent and around the world. It brings you a succinct summary of the latest developments, both in news and research, with links to the original material. Contact us: info@medicalbrief.co.za

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