Juta MedicalBrief

The characterisation of NHI as a form of centralised state control that will undermine clinical autonomy and effectively nationalise healthcare provision is misleading, argue senior health officials in response to a commentary by RW Johnson published last week in MedicalBrief. Dr Olive Shisana, Dr Adiel Chikobvu and Moremi Nkosi write: The article titled “Why does the ANC cling to the clearly disastrous NHI?” presents itself as a critique of NHI, but on closer examination, it is better understood as an ideologically driven argument rather than an informed and evidence-based policy analysis. The central weakness of the article is that it assumes,...

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU ) has swooped on 11 luxury vehicles, including limited-edition supercars, belonging to alleged Tembisa Hospital looting kingpin Hangwani Maumela – adding to the already attached eight properties (worth a total of about R175m) in Johannesburg, Ballito, Cape Town and North West, reports TimesLIVE. The cars include Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and Ferrairs. Some were found at a dealership in Mpumalanga, but despite their acquisition being linked to proceeds from the Tembisa looting, the dealership and SIU are embroiled in a legal battle over the attachment of five of them. The matter is now before the High Court...

The Eastern Cape Department of Health is to investigate allegations that several deaths occurred when nurses and porters abandoned their posts for an illegal four-day protest at Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay last week, reports The Herald. Video footage circulating online showed a patient lying – apparently dead – on the floor of a ward, while another video showed protesters singing and dancing outside the building. The nurses, who simply abandoned their posts citing exhaustion and overwork, left a trail of chaos and panic in their wake, with surgeries in limbo and patients unattended. The strike was roundly condemned by...

For nine critical days – from 1-9 April – Livingstone Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay had no cardiologists on duty due to an administrative blunder, putting patients at life-threatening risk in an already struggling healthcare system, reports Daily Maverick. Not a single cardiologist for adult patients was on duty – because their contracts had lapsed. On 9 April, the crisis appeared still to be unresolved. While lifesaving equipment, including a multimillion-rand catheterisation laboratory, was available, it remained unused as the doctors who could operate it were not under contract. As the primary tertiary facility for the western area of the Eastern Cape, Livingstone...

The non-profit organisation DignitySA filed an application in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) last week seeking to have the laws that criminalise medically assisted dying declared unconstitutional and invalid, reports Business Day. It also wants the court to direct Parliament to enact appropriate legislation legalising assisted dying within two years, and to suspend the declaration of invalidity during this period. The NPO argues that the prohibition contradicts the rights enshrined in the constitution, including those protecting human dignity and bodily autonomy. “We are asking the court to recognise that a person’s human dignity is severely diminished when they lose control over...

Ongoing problems relating to the accreditation of dental students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) remain unresolved, with the South African Dental Technicians Council saying the programme had been suspended, and citing historical failures and infrastructure issues, reports the Cape Times. On Friday, Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Deputy Minister Nomusa Dube-Ncube was having a meeting with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in efforts to devise a solution to the crisis. Department spokesperson Matshepo Seedat said the situation “is complex, involving multiple stakeholders”. “While there is not yet a solution, the point of the meeting is to find a...

South Africa’s only state gender-affirming clinic provides surgery to just four patients a year, while receiving up to 10 new referrals a month – with patients joining the list today facing a wait of 20 to 30 years, writes Jacques Malherbe for GroundUp. The backlog was exacerbated by Covid, health budget cuts, and the collapse of NGO services after international funding cuts. Meanwhile, nearly a third of transgender youth in South Africa have attempted suicide, according to studies, with those unable to access care at particular risk. Christien Odendaal spent decades feeling trapped by her body. “From five-years-old, I knew I wanted...

Civil society and social justice advocates are demanding that Parliament treat menstrual hygiene as a fundamental human right through the proposed Menstrual Health Rights Bill, which calls for free access to safe sanitary products in public institutions, similar to the national condom distribution programme, reports The Citizen. Despite existing progressive policies, such as no VAT on menstrual products and the Sanitary Dignity Implementation Framework, which sees pads handed out freely by government to female pupils in no-fee paying, special and farm schools, they say it is not enough. Nonkululo Malawana, founder and executive of I Menstruate, told Parliament at a meeting...

More than 300 declared state patients are sitting in prisons awaiting placement in health institutions, with the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services warning that these delays pose human-rights risks and are straining both correctional and public health systems, reports the Cape Argus. At a Department of Health briefing on the legislative framework for the admission, treatment, review, and reintegration of these patients, committee chairperson Kgomotso Ramolobeng said while members had noted the outline of the legal and institutional processes involved, they remained concerned about ongoing challenges affecting the system. These include capacity constraints at mental health facilities, delays in periodic reviews,...

The first generic of dapagliflozin (Farxiga) tablets for adults with type 2 diabetes has been given the green light by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), reports MedPage Today. Generics of the SGLT2 inhibitor are indicated for glycaemic control (alongside diet and exercise) and for reducing the risk of heart failure hospitalisations among patients with established cardiovascular disease or multiple CVD risk factors. Dapagliflozin was first approved in 2014 and works by reducing the reabsorption of glucose and sodium in the kidneys. The branded version has also picked up indications for glycaemic control in children with type 2 diabetes and...

The parents of a baby born in 2002 – weighing just 410g – were told by doctors it would be best to abort because he would not survive being born at only 27 weeks of gestation. Against the odds, however, they refused, and today he’s a happy, healthy young man, reports News24. Despite Jarryd Grootboom’s mother Renee suffering from life-threatening pre-eclampsia, she and her husband, Jeremy Grootboom, were adamant they were going to bring their firstborn son into the world, no matter the sacrifices or difficulty. When Jarryd was delivered at Panorama Medi-Clinic in Cape Town on 31 October 2002, several...

Community leaders from the Bluff, outside Durban, are demanding a full investigation into staff at Wentworth Hospital after a woman gave birth on the grass outside the emergency area on Saturday, reports Post. They have described the staff’s callous and nonchalant attitude as alleged “unacceptable negligence”. According to other patients and witnesses, the woman, who had been dropped off by a taxi, had been in obvious distress and screamed for help, telling staff she was about to deliver the baby. “She asked for help… not luxury, and not special treatment… just basic medical care. But instead of being assisted immediately, she was...

South Africans are taking to GLP-1 weight loss drugs like ducks to water, with a recent study revealing that one in 20 people is already taking or considering treatments like Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro, reports TimesLIVE. According to the research by consumer data company Worldpanel by Numerator, about 13% of South Africans fall into this category – but a total of 63% of the population have still never heard of injectable weight loss medications. “Only 37% of consumers are familiar with GLP-1 medications, compared with 47% globally, suggesting the market is still at an early stage of adoption,” the report noted,...

Pledges worth millions were committed at the G7 One Health Summit in Lyon, France last week, while South African generic drug company Aspen also announced that it intends to prequalify two childhood vaccines, the hexavalent and pneumococcal vaccines, and start manufacturing these for Africa by the end of the year, reports Health Policy Watch. The European Commission said it would contribute €700m to the next funding cycle of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria, with €185m in the first year to kickstart the allocation – one of several pledges made at the summit as the World Bank,...

Thieves who had robbed EMS staff while they were loading an elderly patient into an ambulance last week in Bonteheuwel, Western Cape, were nabbed by police shortly afterwards, thanks to a community tip-off, reports the Cape Argus. Police arrested two men, aged 21 and 30, for possession of the stolen property – they were also carrying 15 rounds of ammunition. Western Cape Health Department spokesperson Shimoney Regter confirmed that the staff and patient were not harmed during the ordeal. “Attacks on EMS staff are unacceptable and place both personnel and patients at serious risk.” The men were due to appear in the Bishop...

For the first time in Dutch history, the state is being held liable for the long waiting lists in mental healthcare, with non-profit foundation Recht op ggz, an action group of healthcare workers and patients in The Netherlands, filing the summons last week after working on the lawsuit for two years, reports NL Times. It accuses the state of failing to protect "fundamental and social human rights” and the right to good healthcare, and demands that it address the backlogs. Patients have to wait an unacceptably long time for care, or receive no appropriate care at all, the foundation said, with...

Disgraced former Pretoria midwife Yolande Fouchee (48) has been found guilty of multiple crimes, including the culpable homicide of a nine-day-old infant, reports News24. Fouchee, owner and former midwife at You and Me Midwife-led Maternity Care, who appeared in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) last week, was also found guilty of fraud, six counts of assault, five counts of assault involving a legal duty, and the employment of an unqualified person. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said that Fouchee operated as a midwife between 2019 and 2020, conducting pregnancy check-ups and assisting women during childbirth at her practice in Pretoria, but...

The family of an American student who died in 2024 has launched a lawsuit against a hospital after he was declared dead via a “tele-health provider” on a video screen, rather than someone at the facility, reports CNN. The lawsuit also argues that the hospital was “inattentive” and “provided substandard care” that resulted in the death of Conor Hylton (26). The University of Connecticut student, who had been studying dentistry to follow in his parents’ footsteps, died at Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus in August 2024 after being diagnosed with pancreatitis, dehydration, metabolic acidosis and alcohol withdrawal. “This shouldn’t have happened. He had...