Daily Live Feed

The High Court has delivered a damning ruling against the controversial Certificate of Need (CON) scheme for doctors and private hospitals, and has struck out sections of the National Health Act, saying they were "unconstitutional". Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) judge Anthony Millar, in his ruling, stymied government attempts to force… Read more »

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has rejected what it calls a misinformation campaign related to its draft B-BBEE Policy, which it says is a result of a “robust consultation process with all material stakeholders”. MedicalBrief reports that in a statement on its website, the regulator said the… Read more »

Doctors, nurses and hospital administrators around the globe were going into panic mode last week as they raced to manage the consequences of the largest IT outage in history. MedicalBrief notes that while the Microsoft outage, believed to be caused by a software update and which affected computers worldwide, had… Read more »

KZN provincial hospitals are having a leadership crisis and intervention is urgently needed, according to the Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA), which has challenged the government to deal with the issue as a matter of priority. At least eight hospitals have acting CEOs, and in a statement this… Read more »

Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) is encouraged by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent promises to “resolve differences” and “bring stakeholders together” on the thorny NHI issue, and now plans to set up a meeting with Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. The business lobby group was responding to Ramaphosa’s address at the… Read more »

A Stellenbosch University medical student and qualified paramedic is being investigated by the university’s Equality Unit after using his X account to allegedly “incite violence” and make “genocidal” remarks about Palestinians by apparently calling for a nuclear weapon to remove them from Gaza. Barry Barling’s post was followed by outrage… Read more »

The chaos caused by last month’s cyber attack has led to the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) having to rely on the private sector for help with emergency lab tests while its IT systems are still being restored. The intrusion has been blamed on the BlackSuit hacking group, a private… Read more »

The Health Department has confirmed that a grade 1 pupil from Hammanskraal – initially said to have contracted mpox – has tested negative for the viral disease, after the Education Department in Gauteng had issued a statement last week saying she had been hospitalised with symptoms. Gauteng Education MEC Matome… Read more »

More than half of South Africa’s tuberculosis patients are struggling to cope with the costs related to their illnesses, with thousands of them sinking ever deeper into poverty, according to new research commissioned by the National Department of Health (NDoH). The findings show that financial barriers that impede their ability… Read more »

Nearly half of the world’s population suffers from some form of neurological condition ranging from simple migraines to Alzheimer’s, and yet in low-income countries, more than 75% of those needing treatment cannot access care, according to a World Health Organisation report released on Tuesday (World Brain Day). The treatment gap… Read more »