Surgeons "overstepped" the mark in advocating a Christchurch-only service, Dunedin Hospital intensive care clinical leader Mike Hunter said yesterday, commenting on the announcement Dunedin will keep neurosurgery.
Anxious neurosurgery campaign supporters had to overcome a technical glitch yesterday when the audio link between Dunedin and Wellington crashed before the good news about neurosurgery could be relayed.
The loneliness of a spell in isolation in Dunedin Hospital's oncology and haematology ward should be a bit easier for children and young adults after a $5000 donation to kit out an isolation room with the latest gadgets.
Wait times for routine MRI scans have blown out to 52 weeks at Dunedin Hospital in the wake of months of rolling strike action.
The Press Council has upheld a complaint against University of Otago student newspaper Critic over an article depicting three people the publication deemed homeless and vagrant.
Car pooling and stricter rules have helped reduce the Southern District Health Board staff travel bill, acting finance and funding general manager David Dickson says.
Those who have helped Kaikorai Valley College assisted with an enjoyable task yesterday - sampling senior hospitality pupils' cooking efforts at an "appreciation luncheon".
Carers told not to speak to residents to save time and residents left in bed all day because of lack of staff are among issues which suggest the aged-care sector is in crisis and urgently needs regulation, a report released yesterday says.
"My only question was, 'Where are my family?'."
An Otago surf club is delighted after four of the region's surf spots were named as nationally significant in a coastal policy released yesterday.
The Chalmers Community Board elected Jan Tucker for her fifth consecutive term as chairwoman when it held its inaugural meeting in Dunedin yesterday.
Ways must be found to reduce the amount of medication prescribed to the elderly because it was costly and might not be doing any good, a Southern District Health Board committee was told in Dunedin yesterday.
Doctors are getting older and working fewer hours, and may be more likely to stay in the country than they were a few years ago, the Medical Council's latest workforce survey shows.
A Dunedin woman receiving couple counselling related to the family's two autistic sons has appealed to Presbyterian Support not to reduce the service and has criticised a lack of communication about proposed cuts.
Presbyterian Support proposes reducing its counselling service to put more resources into social work.
The $1.8 million funding boost announced this week for radiation treatment in Dunedin is probably the best Christmas present the department could hope for, Southern Blood and Cancer Service radiation oncologist Dr Shaun Costello says.
Health sector industrial disputes need to be resolved by compulsory arbitration, as rolling strikes by radiographers are harming patients, Southern District Health Board Otago chief medical officer Richard Bunton says.
Southern cancer patients should have a shorter wait for radiation treatment because of a $1.8 million funding boost announced by Health Minister Tony Ryall yesterday.
Dunedin's Amalgamated Builders Ltd has been awarded a contract of nearly $2 million to build school dental clinics.
District health board members will receive increased support and training, Health Minister Tony Ryall says.
