News
Gauteng Health to slash waiting times
10 Jun 2025
Gauteng Health is rolling out new MagneticResonance Imaging (MRI) machines to address problems like outdated equipment, surging patient demand, and existing staff shortages that cause lengthy waiting times for crucial diagnostic scans. – The Citizen (10 June 2025)
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Western Cape’s think tank includes public and private sector
10 Jun 2025
The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness has established a think tank focused on forging closer ties with the private sector, reported Business Day (10 June 2025).
It comprises a group of stakeholders, including representatives from private hospitals, laboratories, pharmacy groups, medical schemes, and academic institutions and provincial health department officials.
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NHI Act Under Fire
05 Jun 2025
The Health Funders Association (HFA) HFA, representing most of SA’s medical schemes has petitioned the Court to declare the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act landmark legislation ‘irrational and unconstitutional’, reported Business Day (5 June 2025)
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Ramaphosa applied for leave to appeal High Court judgement on NHI Act
04 Jun 2025
On 2 June the President Cyril Ramaphosa has applied for leave to appeal against a High Court ruling concerning his decision to sign the NHI Act into law.
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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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Health Minister’s comment provides ‘some comfort to medical scheme industry’
15 Jun 2022
Health Minister Joe Phaahla’s comment that NHI will be implemented step-by-step - gradually phasing out the role of medical schemes in the private sector - should provide some comfort to these private healthcare services, according to Business Day (15 June 2022)
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Activists demands change in intellectual property laws
10 Nov 2021
Activists from Fix the Patent Laws Campaign (FTPL) urged government to change intellectual property laws to allow more people to access lifesaving medicine for serious ailments such as cancer, HIV, Covid, tuberculosis, mental health and diabetes.
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Vaccination slashes Covid deaths and ICU stays
10 Nov 2021
Bloomberg reported on 9
th November that an Australian study found that people who are fully vaccinated are 16 times less likely to end up in intensive care wards or to die from Covid-19 than those who have not been immunised.
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COVID-19: The big wave is coming
09 Jun 2020
“It is only a matter of time before the rest of South Africa reaches the surge in COVID-19 coronavirus cases currently being experienced in the Western Cape, experts warn,” reported City Press (7 June 2020).
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