News
1 300 doctors waiting for jobs
30 Jun 2025
According to Dr Percy Mahlathi, a Deputy Director-General in the National Department of Health, an estimated 1,300 post-community service doctors, including those trained in South Africa, Russia, and China, are unable to find employment in the public sector, reported Daily Maverick (27 June 2025).
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Biovac Secures Deal to Produce Pneumonia Vaccine
27 Jun 2025
Cape Town-based research group Biovac has announced a major technology transfer agreement with Indian pharmaceutical firm Biological E, reported Business Day (27 July 2025).
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Bestmet to use AI to combat fraudulent claims
27 Jun 2025
“Bestmet Medical Scheme, SA’s fourth-largest open medical scheme, is preparing to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its systems to combat the growing scourge of fraudulent claims plaguing the healthcare industry,” reported Business Day (2025).
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Fears of Disease Outbreaks as Global Child Vaccination Rates Stall
26 Jun 2025
On 26 June 2025 The Citizen reported that, according to a recent study published in The Lancet, disruptions to childhood immunisationbetween 2020 and 2023 resulted in nearly 13m additional children who have never been vaccinated.
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Gauteng Health on vaccine drive as measles spreads
26 Jun 2025
Gauteng Health is launching a vaccination campaign in schools and at taxi ranks in efforts to halt measle infections. – MedicalBrief (25 June 2025)
Since the beginning of the year 181 cases have been reported – most of them in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni – with 15 new cases being recorded in the past week alone.
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State Capture 2.0 Disguised As Health-Care Reform Tech Financials 22 June 2025
25 Jun 2025
“The National Health Insurance (NHI) plan is not a lifeline for SA’s broken health care system. It is a carefully engineered ploy to centralise control of more than R1-trillion, ostensibly for universal health care,” wrote Gugu Lourie in the Sunday Times. 22 June 2025
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Parliament Launches Inquiry into RAF Amid Financial Chaos
25 Jun 2025
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has officially launched a formal inquiry into the finances of the Road Accident Fund (RAF), reported Business Day (25 June 2025)
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NHI will mean little without the right care– Mail and Guardian (24 June 2025)
25 Jun 2025
“Of 696 facilities evaluated in the Office of Health Standards Compliance’s latest report, only five met 80% of the required performance standards, which include drug availability and proper infection control,” according to the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
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Life Healthcare backs collaboration to tackle healthcare crisis
27 Nov 2024
Life Healthcare CEO Peter Wharton-Hood has backed a call for greater collaboration between the government and private healthcare providers to address South Africa’s pressing healthcare challenges. This follows a proposal by Netcare CEO Richard Friedland, who suggested adding healthcare as the fourth pillar in an existing government-business partnership focused on revitalising the economy.
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Discovery Life claims back to pre-Covid levels
19 Apr 2024
“Discovery Life distributed R10.3bn to its clients, a decrease from the R11bn paid the previous year,” reported Business Day (19April 2024)
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Hundreds of websites found selling fake weight-loss drugs
16 Apr 2024
Reuters reported on 15 April that the cybersecurity company BrandShield has shut down over 250 websites selling counterfeit versions of popular drugs used for weight loss and diabetes treatment within the GLP-1 class.
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RAF bid to appeal judgment on claim requirements
06 Dec 2023
On 5 December 2023 the Pretoria High Court rejected the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) request to reconsider a previous verdict from November, reported Business Day.
“The ruling mandated eliminating the stringent new requirements for filing claims outlined in a 2021 board notice.”
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Covid-19 vaccines: ‘Health Department squandered the opportunity’
07 Sep 2023
“Health activists are right to draw attention to this grossly unfair situation. (Covid-19 vaccine deals) But the far bigger scandal is that the Health Department squandered the opportunity after spending an estimated R14-bn on Covid-19 jabs and belatedly filling its warehouses with enough doses to vaccinate the nation” – Business Day (7 September 2023).
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EDITORIAL: Health Minister must halt care crisis
20 Jan 2023
NHI, the government’s plan for universal health coverage, rests heavily on nurse-led care. Yet where these nurses will come from is a mystery. – Editorial (
Business Day 20 January 2023).
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Study raises concerns about quality of hospital meals
12 Jan 2023
According to a study of meals served at Cape Town hospitals the food served to hospital patients are way below the health department “ration scale” and patients’ energy requirements, reported
Financial Mail (12 January 2023).
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