Navigating patient confidentiality, social media and professional boundaries
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Thursday 13th August 2026
18:00 – 19:45
Earn 2 ethics CPD points
During this webinar, the HPCSA Booklet 5: Confidentiality – Protecting and Providing Information and HPCSA Booklet 16: Ethical Guidelines on social media will be explored from a South African legal and ethical practice perspective. The webinar will offer insights into the complexities of digital communication, including WhatsApp and social media use, consent, online reviews and cybersecurity, while focusing on protecting patient confidentiality and public trust across all forms of communication.
The audience will have an opportunity to listen and engage with clinical, legal and medicolegal subject matter experts. During the webinar, a range of learning opportunities will be offered including short lectures, interactive case studies, audience polling and Q&A.
This webinar will focus on healthcare practitioners engaging in digital communication with patients and colleagues. Administrative staff working in these practices are welcome to join the discussion.
Joining us as panellists will be Emma Sadleir, South Africa’s leading expert on social media law, and Dr Isabel do Vale, a practising medical practitioner and President-elect of APRASSA. Attendance will qualify for 2 Ethics CPD points and EthiQal Recognition Programme points.
EthiQal cordially invites you to an ethics webinar on Thursday, 16th April.
During this webinar, the HPCSA Booklet 7: Guidelines for the Withholding and Withdrawing of Treatment and HPCSA Booklet 17: Ethical Guidelines on Palliative Care will be explored from a South African legal and ethical practice perspective. The webinar will offer insights into the complexities of withholding, treating, withdrawing and palliating patients while focusing on offering ethical and compassionate care and support to both patients and their loved ones.
The audience will have an opportunity to listen and engage with clinical, legal and medical malpractice insurance subject matter experts. During the webinar, a range of learning opportunities will be offered, including short lectures, interactive case studies with a series of multiple choice questions, panel discussions, and audience Q&A.
Date: Thursday 16th April 2026
Time: 18h00 – 19h45
2 CPD Ethics Points
Speakers
Dr Shetil Nana
Dr Shetil Nana is a Paediatrician and Paediatric Critical Care Consultant with experience across the South African state and private healthcare sectors. Currently based at Mowbray Maternity Hospital, she works as a sessional consultant in the neonatal intensive care unit – where her clinical expertise is matched by a deep commitment to patient-centred advocacy.
Dr Hlombe Makuluma
Hlombe is a general medical practitioner with a Masters in Medical Law and Ethics. He is currently a PhD Candidate in Medical Law with the University of Pretoria.
Assoc Prof Zainab Mohamed
Associate Professor Zainab Mohamed is a Clinical and Radiation Oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Groote Schuur Hospital, and the University of Cape Town. She is the head of the clinical unit, runs the Lymphoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma and Thyroid cancer clinics and provides radiotherapy services to Clinical Haematology.
Dr Luyanda Mtukushe
Luyanda is a practicing advocate and a member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates. He has 10 years’ experience as an Advocate and his areas of practice being medical related litigation, and general commercial litigation.
Amy Wolfe
Amy is a healthcare continuing professional development (CPD) professional with more than 15 years’ experience of building, delivering and evaluation programmes for South African healthcare professionals.
This webinar will focus on specialist practices. Administrative staff working in these practices are welcome to join the discussion.
The newly launched, first of its kind, EthiQal Recognition Programme strives to acknowledge professional conduct that reflects a commitment to the delivery of excellent patient care and the reduction of medicolegal risk.
It is aimed at specialist clinicians in private practice and is based on a point system where defined activities qualify for set points that over time convert to premium refunds.
The Programme underpins EthiQal’s pledge to promoting high-quality healthcare, supporting practitioners in building successful, safe practices and managing their medicolegal risk, and aligning individual practitioners’ professional indemnity premiums with their unique insurance risk.
How the Programme works and which activities qualify for point collection are outlined in the Recognition Programme Benefit Guide, with the formal details of the Programme defined in the Terms and Conditions and Benefit Rules documents, which can all be viewed on the EthiQal website: https://ethiqal.co.za/
For more information about EthiQal, click here [https://ethiqal.co.za/contact/] complete the form, and an Advisor will call you back.
During this webinar, attendees will review the HPCSA Booklet 10: General Ethical Guidelines for Good Practice in Telehealth where the pertinent South Africa laws and basic principles around ethical practice for patient consultations and the accompanying administration will be explored. The webinar will offer insights into different types of telehealth and ethical guidelines with specific focus on the quality, security, and safety of patient records.
The audience will have an opportunity to listen and engage with clinical, legal, medical malpractice insurance, cybersecurity, and telehealth subject matter experts. During the webinar, a range of learning opportunities will be offered including short lectures, interactive case studies with a series of multiple choices questions, panel discussions, and audience Q&A.
This webinar will focus on specialist practices. Administrative staff working in these practices are welcome to join the discussion.
Ethical patient record keeping is essential to modern healthcare, ensuring safe, effective, and trustworthy care. Accurate documentation supports continuity, clinical decision-making, and legal accountability, while also carrying ethical importance by safeguarding sensitive information with honesty, confidentiality, and respect. Poor record keeping can decrease patient outcomes, create confusion, impact multidisciplinary collaboration, and create legal risk.
Managing records ethically protects patient privacy and autonomy while allowing patients access and control over their health data. With the growth of digital health technologies, new challenges such as data security, electronic informed consent, and cybersecurity have emerged. Breaches or cyberattacks can erode trust, discourage information sharing, and disrupt care delivery, highlighting the need to balance accessibility with strong safeguards.
Join our expert speaker panel to explore how you can effectively manage your patient records to ensure integrity and continue to build trust vital to patient-centred healthcare.
During this webinar, attendees will review the HPCSA Booklet 9:Guidelines on the keeping of patient health records where the pertinent South Africa laws and basic principles around ethical practices for maintaining patient health records are laid out. The webinar will offer insights into both paper and electronic record-based practices.
The audience will have an opportunity to engage with faculty who offer insights from a clinical, legal, medical malpractice insurance, cybersecurity, and medical practice setup and management perspective through short lectures, interactive case studies, a series of multiple choices questions and Q&A sessions.
This webinar will focus on specialist practices. Administrative staff working in these practices are welcome to join the discussion.
The healthcare sector is most effective when all stakeholders behave professionally and uphold ethical principles. Unethical practices are evident when stakeholders violate moral principles, ethical practices and organisational standards resulting in reduced productivity, decreased patient outcomes, increased patient risk and cost, fraud, and wastage.
Ethical practice is however linked to cultural values, context and workplace norms. As such, what may be viewed as unethical in one situation could be viewed as ethical practice in another. Unethical behaviour may therefore be unintentional and hence the importance of having clear guidelines on how to act in specific situations.
During this recorded webinar, healthcare providers will review the newly released HPCSA Booklet 19: Guidelines for Health Practitioners on Matters Relating to Ethical Billing Practices where the pertinent South African laws and basic principles around ethical billing practices are laid out. The live audience had an opportunity to engage with faculty who offered a clinical (Dr Simon Strachan, paediatrician in private practice and CEO of South African Private Practitioners Forum), legal (Deniro Pillay, Norton Rose Fulbright Admitted Attorney in the medical law and malpractice litigation sector), HPCSA (Mr Mpho Mbodi, HPCSA Head of Professional Practice division), medical malpractice insurance (Dr Hlombe Makuluma, EthiQal Medicolegal Advisor) perspective through short lectures, interactive case studies, a series of multiple choices questions (MCQs) and Q&A sessions.
Healthcare professionals who watch this full webinar are entitled to claim 2 ethics CPD points. Instructions on how to claim points are covered in the webinar recording.
iTOO Special Risks, a specialty risk underwriter and EthiQal, a medical professional indemnity provider for specialist doctors, have announced an exciting strategic partnership. This collaboration, backed by Hollard, one of South Africa’s largest non-life insurers, aims to bolster EthiQal’s mission to protect healthcare professionals with robust, reliable coverage and medico-legal support.
Together, the partnership reinforces the comprehensive suite of medical malpractice insurance cover available across the spectrum; iTOO’s focus on allied professionals, General Practitioners, institutions and clinical trials continues and EthiQal remains focussed on specialist practitioners.
Together this partnership unlocks valuable opportunities to achieve the shared vision of strengthening the protection of the medical profession, without which the delivery of high quality healthcare is not achievable.
EthiQal Reinforced
EthiQal’s dedication to safeguarding specialist practitioners aligns perfectly with iTOO’s extensive network and expertise in specialty insurance. This partnership, ‘EthiQal Reinforced,’ aims to leverage the strengths of both entities to enhance their offerings and deliver world-class products and services to their clients.
“We are saying this partnership is ‘EthiQal Reinforced’ because while EthiQal is already a strong entity, together with iTOO, it becomes even bigger and stronger,” says Justin Naylor, CEO at iTOO. “iTOO’s extensive network and resources bring additional and complementary skills and capabilities to support EthiQal and its customers.”
Naylor further elaborates, “We have a 20-year track record and well-established risk underwriting capability with a market-leading diverse product range, backed by a complete cradle-to-grave infrastructure. This partnership combines the expertise and track records of both iTOO and EthiQal, reinforcing their excellent offerings.”
EthiQal’s Vision and Strengths
Alex Brownlee, CEO of EthiQal, highlights the alignment of principles and vision that initially brought the two parties together. “iTOO brings a legacy of deep insurance expertise, an extensive network, and additional skills that complement our own. This partnership provides enhanced financial backing, stability, and reliability,” says Brownlee.
Brownlee emphasises the focused and niche market that EthiQal serves, which requires leading risk management support. “Medical malpractice, particularly in fields like obstetrics, spinal surgery, neonates and neurosurgery, involves high risks and long-duration claims. This has driven us to develop deep expertise and understanding of the medico-legal landscape,” he notes.
EthiQal’s team includes a dedicated clinical team, an in-house legal team available for urgent advice and legal support, and personalised quality service. Brownlee assures that the partnership will not change the way EthiQal does business, nor change its products or services, but will reinforce and support the dedicated and steadfast EthiQal team in their commitment to support doctors.
Financial Resilience and Support
EthiQal has strong financial capacity, with a Solvency Capital Requirement above 120%, well beyond the regulatory 1-in-200-year event solvency requirement. The firm enjoys continued financial backing from Dr. Christo Wiese’s Titan Group and reinsurance cover from Lloyd’s of London. Along with iTOO and Hollard, this combination offers improved financial support, stability, and reliability “for our clients’ benefit”, Brownlee stresses.
“EthiQal offers incredible value for medical specialists, and Titan will continue to invest significant resources to build EthiQal’s capacity to measure, mitigate and absorb medical malpractice risk. Alex Brownlee and the team’s drive and capability is what attracted us to the business and what will ensure EthiQal continues to offer value to its policyholders and broker partners”, says Titan’s investment executive Zac Pitsillis.
Engagement and Education
Brownlee also confirmed that EthiQal will remain actively involved in the medical community through conferences, presentations, and educational grants. “Over the last 2 years in particular we have been extremely active in sharing our knowledge and insights, aiming to support doctors and their medical societies.”
Commitment to Quality and Service
“This partnership with iTOO, backed by Hollard, reinforces the quality and value of EthiQal’s products and people, demonstrating confidence in EthiQal’s future and the team that makes it happen,” Brownlee concludes. “The alignment in our values, vision and approach to clients is a critical reason why this partnership is ideal.”
Hosted by Dr Hlombe Makuluma, Medicolegal Advisor at EthiQal, this webinar will be co-presented by two admitted attorneys, Mashooma Parker and Jessica Viljoen, who are both legal advisors within the claims team at EthiQal. The 90-minute session will cover compliance for record-keeping requirements as well as dealing with requests for patient records from patients and third parties.
Participants will gain valuable insights to ethically enhance their practice’s visibility and reach, fostering responsible and compliant advertising practices.
Mashooma Parker is a skilled Legal Advisor within the Claims & Legal team at EthiQal, specialising in medical malpractice. With a strong background in the legal field and a passion for assisting healthcare practitioners, Mashooma brings a wealth of expertise to navigate the complexities that arise with patients and third parties. Hosting the first topic, She will cover the requirements for healthcare practitioners to ensure quality record-keeping compliance with Booklet 9 of the HPCSA’s Ethical Guidelines.
Jessica Viljoen is an admitted attorney and legal advisor specialising in professional indemnity insurance for healthcare practitioners, and medical malpractice law. With her extensive experience within the medico-legal space, including her years of litigation experience, Jessica leverages her industry knowledge to provide legal advice and assistance to all specialties of medical practitioners throughout South Africa. She will present the second part of the talk, which will deal with Patient and Third-party requests for patient records and how to ensure compliance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000.
The speakers will offer some useful tips from a medico-legal risk management perspective for health practitioners to be cognisant of, as well as to work through some practical examples to illustrate the importance of the topic.
At least one hour’s attendance on the Zoom Platform is required to earn CPD points, and for those unable to watch it live, a recording will be made available.
We are excited to extend a special invitation to you for our upcoming webinar on March 13th, titled “Advertising Your Practice.” Following the tremendous success of our previous webinars, we are thrilled to present this insightful session featuring industry experts JP Ellis, Claims & Legal expert at EthiQal, and Athol Gordon, Partner at Clyde & Co, renowned for their expertise in medical negligence.
This webinar will provide valuable insights into effectively advertising your practice, drawing from their extensive experience and expertise. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and network with other professionals in the field.
I hope this newsletter finds you in good health and high spirits. As part of Doctors’ Day on 16 November, my team and I wanted to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation for the incredible work you do every day.
On this special occasion, we celebrate you and your fellow doctors for the remarkable impact you make on the lives of those you serve. Your expertise, resilience, and compassionate care contribute to the betterment of our community and the well-being of countless individuals. We recognise the challenges you face, especially in these unprecedented times, and we are inspired by your continued efforts to provide exceptional healthcare.
At EthiQal, we take pride in supporting doctors like you. We are committed to ensuring that you have the comprehensive insurance coverage you need, allowing you to focus on what matters most – your patients.
To mark this occasion, we extend our warmest wishes for a Happy Doctors’ Day! May you find time to reflect on your accomplishments and the positive impact you’ve made on the lives you’ve touched.
As a token of our appreciation, we have created a small thank you video. Please click on the video below – it may be a small gesture, but we hope it brings a smile to your face and serves as a reminder of the impact you make every day.
We are also donating, on your behalf, to the Healthcare Workers Care Network (HWCN), a nationwide healthcare worker mental health support network with the slogan ‘Caring for the Carers by Carers’. They do great work supporting doctors, sustained only by financial donations and pro bono work.
Thank you for your tireless dedication, and we look forward to continuing to support you whilst you focus on making our nation healthier.
