Getting to grips with occurrence-based professional indemnity cover
South Africans are becoming increasingly aware of their rights when it comes to medical malpractice, explaining some of the increases in the number and size of claims against doctors. Taking into consideration these trends, it is important that medical practitioners have professional indemnity cover which protects them against legal defence costs and claims for damages for personal injury where allegations of improper professional conduct are levelled against them.
Will NHI worsen SA’s medico-legal nightmare?
With the draft NHI bill silent on an estimated R98 billion in state medico-legal claims, public sector doctors are deeply unsettled by a recent warning from the Gauteng Department of Health, that they could be held liable in their personal capacities for damages claimed as a result of patient harm.
METROGEL V GETS A MAKEOVER
MetroGel V, the preferred choice for the treatment of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) by South African gynaecologists, has had a facelift. The same trusted product now comes in beautifully designed floral packaging, adding visual appeal to the product and aligning to its therapeutic goal of re-establishing vaginal flora.
Newly forged partnership set to revolutionise disposal of hazardous medical waste in SA
The safe and effective management of healthcare waste emanating from hospitals and other healthcare facilities has long been a matter of grave concern locally and internationally. An all-South African partnership known as Tshenolo Green Solutions (TGS) is combining the use of a new cutting-edge, locally developed on-site waste disposal technology, with a comprehensive logistic approach to medical waste disposal.
Medical industry duty of care: onerous, but necessary
A recent study on the state of medical waste management in rural South Africa has revealed that areas of the country are underprepared to deal with multiple forms of potentially-hazardous materials. If left unchecked, communities could be exposed to hazardous materials that medical facilities have a legal and ethical duty to dispose of according to very stringent regulations.
Why having a good bedside manner is crucial for HCP’s
Think healthcare is all clinical and medical? Not so! Here is why the people-part matters as much as the treatment.
Systems harm patients more than doctors
A culture of “name, blame and shame,” in medicine drastically reduces the potential for system changes to improve patient safety, the Hospital Association of South Africa’s (HASA’s), annual conference was told by a global expert in public health on Tuesday, 27 August.
Professor Michael Marx, of the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health at the University of Heidelberg said it was deeply disturbing for clinicians to realise how much their performance was shaped by the equipment, tasks, environment and organization around them.
Global view of NHI cause for optimism in SA
South Africans are often too introspective and forget to examine how the rest of the world has implemented widely-differing models of universal healthcare, Barry Childs, a nationally-respected healthcare actuary says.
Contrary to popular local belief, a global map of the percentage of the population covered by universal healthcare shows South Africa to be in the high ninety percent, comparing favorably to most of the developed world. The only other country that shines equally in Sub-Saharan Africa is Ghana, he revealed at the recent HASA 2019 Conference.
Computer hackers able to kill patients
Hobbyist or criminal hackers who breached security firewalls could potentially kill patients wearing remote-controlled pacemakers or insulin pump devices, it emerged at the Hospital Association of South Africa’s annual conference on Cape Town’s Foreshore yesterday (Tuesday, 27 August 2019). Speaking during a panel discussion of South African medical technology experts, Tanya Vogt, Executive Officer of the SA Medical Technology Industry Association, said the risk was so real that a group of local medical device experts formed a working group some six years ago to categorise risk and improve quality product management and the clinical evaluation of medical technology products.
Pharma Dynamics announces commercial agreement for hemp oil based cannaQIX® with Creso Pharma
SA’s leading provider of cardiovascular medicine, Pharma Dynamics, has announced the signing of a Commercial Term Sheet with Creso Pharma, a leading global provider of cannabis products, headquartered in Australia. The agreement affords Pharma Dynamics sole distribution rights of Creso’s organic, broad spectrum hemp oil nutraceutical, cannaQIX®10, across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola, Mozambique and Uganda.
Public/private Parktown hospital a model of equity/access
Minor miracles in equitable, quality healthcare provision can happen when unlikely partners join forces. Dr Sue Tager, CEO of the Wits University/Donald Gordan Medical Centre in Parktown spoke on “Collaboration in Healthcare; the art of the possible,” and told an admiring HASA conference audience that the 220-bed private academic hospital, established in 2002, had gone from training 20 super-specialists to 80 currently, with over a thousand doctors having rotated through it.
The risk of weight gain and the benefit of weight loss – how Duromine® can help your patients
The causes of overweight and obesity are complex. While diet and physical activity are central to energy balance, both are directly and indirectly influenced by a wide range of social, environmental, behavioural, genetic and physiological factors. For many people, weight gain is hard to avoid and very difficult to reverse. Advising patients about the health benefits of losing weight and helping them to do so, is becoming increasingly important for healthcare practitioners.
New supplement available which may assist with PCOS symptoms and insulin resistance
A new supplement which contains a unique combination of ingredients clinically proven to help correct endocrine and metabolic imbalances linked to insulin resistance and associated infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is now available in South Africa.
Indemnity outfit boosts State surgical rescues
A local insurer of healthcare professionals, EthiQal, has donated R240 000 to Operation Healing Hands, OHH, a non-profit-organisation set up to relieve the overwhelming burden of surgery in the public sector. The organisation selects disadvantaged, clinically-eligible patients for life-saving and life-enhancing surgery.
Adcock Ingram Critical Care firefighting team follows first aid team to win top spot in SA competitions
The Adcock Ingram Critical Care facility in Aeroton now boasts two of the best manufacturing facility emergency teams in the country, with its firefighting team winning the prestigious national Marsh Mutual Risk Group (MRG) fire team competition only months after the facility’s first aid team won the national Marsh MRG first aid team competition.