Juta MedicalBrief

Constantly rising and increasingly unaffordable medical aid hikes are pushing consumers to the limit, and the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has said households cannot indefinitely keep absorbing the escalations or dropping to lower benefit options that cost less, reports Moneyweb. BHF managing director Katlego Mothudi said the organisation has recently written to the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) pleading for long-term structural reforms allowing medical aids to spend less and therefore charge less. Mothudi said it has received a response and is still awaiting a meeting. In its recent annual report for 2025/26, the CMS anticipated that “higher contribution increases will...

A neurosurgeon from Pretoria who has spent six years claiming he was unlawfully arrested en-route to the hospital to prepare for surgery during the Covid-19 lockdown has lost his case and been ordered by the judge to pay all costs, reports News24. This week, the Gauteng High Court ruled that the arrest of Dr Anderson Chinedu Anyikwa was lawful and that his failure to use the “silver bullet” he claimed to have been carrying – a curfew travel exemption – was his own fault. The doctor had been stopped and then detained for six hours, despite insisting he had a document...

In a long-awaited judgment handed down last Friday, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has interdicted the Road Accident Fund (RAF) from making any deductions from compensation paid to claimants on the basis that their medical expenses have been or will be paid by their medical aid schemes, reports Moneyweb. The appeal related to a December 2024 judgment of a full Bench of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) dismissing Discovery Health’s request for an order declaring the RAF to be in breach of a previous High Court order related to the fund’s liability for the payment of the past medical...

Local business leaders and the HPCSA have urged doctors and practices to tighten measures to avoid illegal access to their prescription and ‘sick note’ pads, and for employees to be on guard when checking these ‘certificates’ and to report infringements immediately. The SA Medical Association (SAMA) has warned that doctors who knowingly issued false or misleading notes should also face legal consequences. In one case in Pietermaritzburg, employers had became suspicious after receiving numerous certificates all purportedly issued by a legitimate healthcare company called Med24 – which has since raised the alarm. Med24, a reputable Pietermaritzburg medical centre specialising in injury on...

South Africa has recorded another death in a lab-confirmed diphtheria case, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ latest surveillance update, which says the Western Cape remains the centre of the recent outbreak. SA Health News reports that the week 40 update, based on data collected until 4 October, says no new confirmed toxigenic diphtheria cases had been added since the previous report, but that one additional death was recorded. The national case count therefore remains at 43 confirmed respiratory diphtheria cases, alongside 10 asymptomatic carriers of toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae identified through surveillance and contact tracing. The preceding NICD report showed that 35...

Unchlorinated water supplied by Tshwane’s Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works for three weeks resulted in at least 408 people, mostly toddlers under four, contracting gastrointestinal infections, reports IOL News, while a joint investigation found that the city failed to warn residents of the danger. And in the Eastern Cape, contaminated water led to more than 100 Rhodes students contracting similar infections, subsequent investigations finding that cases were not just confined to the university but had affected the wider Makhanda community. In the Bronkhorstspruit outbreak, cases were recorded between 7 and 18 October with laboratory findings pointing to contaminated water as the likely source. The...

Updated minimum standards and rules regarding the customisation of medicines, including GLP-1 treatments for diabetes and weight loss, can be expected in South Africa next year, but local health regulators have warned pharmacies not to act as small-scale manufacturers, reports Reuters. At a multi-stakeholder roundtable on counterfeit medicines last week, South African Pharmacy Council Registrar and CEO Vincent Tlala said the council was working with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) on new guidelines for compounding medicines. The revised standards are expected to go before the council ⁠in February, with publication targeted for March. Updated SAHPRA guidelines are expected...

An unusual incentive scheme is being trialled by the Western Cape Department of Health in which participants are rewarded for healthy choices like immunising their children or taking up regular exercise, reports Business Day. Food vouchers, and in the future, discounted access to nature reserves, for instance, will be among the rewards motivating communities. Launched last weekend in Mitchells Plain, the plan draws on South African private sector experience – like Discovery, which pioneered its Vitality behavioural science programme by rewarding members for healthy lifestyles – and public sector programmes in other countries, like Brazil’s Bolsa Família. Bolsa Família provides conditional cash...

Critical issues with the cooling systems at the Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mpumalanga are resulting in surgical postponements and unnecessary delays in theatre procedures, reports The Citizen. The rundown hospital came under fire recently after the SA Human Rights Commission exposed serious infrastructure issues during an oversight visit. Patients awaiting urgent operations are now facing weeks of delays after sweltering conditions have forced doctors to postpone procedures. One patient said he was admitted about three weeks ago with a leg fracture, but his surgery was postponed because theatre temperatures were too high. Acting CEO and clinical manager Dr Tefo Mabina confirmed challenges...

Relentless efforts by an organised network of serial thieves to steal critical equipment from Free State hospitals is forcing the already strained facilties to outlay hundreds of thousands of rands in replacements, reports Mail & Guardian. Repeated thefts of taps, toilet flush mechanisms and copper pipes have left toilets locked, disrupted hot water supplies, and affected the supply of crucial oxygen to operating theatres. Private security has also had to be deployed, said staff at three hospitals, while ICU patients have also been put at risk. According to some employees, their prime suspects are maintenance contractors and people working at the...

The CSIR’s brand new research facility in Pretoria, launched last week, aims to reduce the country’s massive reliance on international supplies of active pharmaceutical ingredients, the importation of which costs South Africa R15bn every year, reports News24. Around 98% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to manufacture medicines locally are imported annually, but the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) new facility, FuturePharma, hopes to change that. Based on the CSIR’s Scientia campus in Pretoria and funded by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, it plans to bridge the gap between promising lab research and the development and...

Judicial police in Guinea-Bissau seized doses of the hepatitis B vaccine from the offices of the controversial researchers linked to a proposed clinical trial – the Bandim Health Project – that would affect thousands of newborns in the country, reports The Guardian. According to a Facebook post by the officials and translated from Portuguese, the police search involved “investigative procedures aimed at clarifying the circumstances related to the said batch of vaccines”. The announcement noted that seizing the immunisations did not point to “irregularities in the quality, safety, or effectiveness of the vaccines”. Guinea-Bissau has flatly denied having approved the controversial...

As the Congo’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak overtakes the 9 000-case mark, with deaths exceeding 4 000, the WHO said the first full-scale human vaccine trial will begin in the region within two weeks, in the hopes that it might offer cross-protection against the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, reports JacarandaFM. This as neighbouring Kenya confirms its second death from the virus. The jab Ervebo is already approved for use against the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, but the agency said insights that it might also protect against Bundibugyo were no match for evidence from standardised vaccine trials. “We have got strong...

Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on Tuesday after a Kenyan citizen who had travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo died in Nairobi, making it the fourth country to record an infection linked to the epidemic in the DRC, reports Reuters. So far more than 8 000 cases have been reported. Uganda reported 20 cases and two deaths earlier in the year but was declared Ebola-free in August. A doctor who returned to France in June from Congo tested positive but there was no further spread ​of the virus. The Kenyan patient, who had lived in the DRC for seven years, had...

In efforts to sustain the use of GLP-1 drugs by its members – most of whom stop claiming for the treatment within six months – Discovery’s rewards scheme Vitality is stepping up its support, saying sustained weight loss requires more than drugs, reports Business Tech. International research shows many patients stop treatment within a year, while an analysis of claims from Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) members shows most stop claiming for the medicines after less than six months. Vitality will now offer people who join its HealthyWeight programme a doctor-led assessment that may include a prescription for anti-obesity medicines, and...

The National Department of Health has finally accepted liability for the death during the Covid-19 pandemic of a patient who died of gross negligence and starvation at Tembisa Hospital, according to a lawyer representing the family, reports the Cape Argus. With that acknowledgement, and after a victorious civil claim for compensation, a milestone has been reached for the family of Shonisani Lethole, who died six years ago. The claim had been brought on the family’s behalf by lawyer Tzvi Brivik, a director at Malcolm Lyons & Brivik Inc. Brivik said this establishes responsibility to compensate the family, although the final amount payable...