Eileen Goodwin

Senior United Nations officials have always assumed they are spied on, and it does not affect their work, a top UN representative says.

Dunedin Hospital's emergency department is a happier place these days, and fewer patients face long waits, emergency department specialist Prof Mike Ardagh says.

Pharmac has announced plans for a $5 million annual fund for certain high-cost medicines, after pressure from advocates who say drugs for rare diseases stand little chance under current funding rules.

Southern and Canterbury district health boards now have joint responsibility for the neurosurgery service that caused serious tension when they could not agree on how it would be provided.

Southern District Health Board chief executive Carole Heatly has hit back at claims senior managers were misleading about the reason for dropping the contract for breast-screening.

The children's television channel made in Dunedin was launched at a black-tie event in Singapore yesterday.

The proposed public-private partnership at Lakes District Hospital, Queenstown, is not like projects overseas that caused concern about fairness and cost to the public purse, Southern District Health Board members were told yesterday.

A public meeting in Dunedin about suicide is hopefully the start of greater co-ordination and leadership of prevention efforts, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists community member Graham Roper says.

A Dunedin man who has waited nearly six months for urgent prostate surgery was given a date for the operation within days of his local MP asking the health board about his care.

A free trade deal that threatens Taiwanese jobs was signed without democratic scrutiny, protest leader Jason Fan says.

Having clocked up three decades in his own barber shop, Michael Shanks says he will not be retiring any time soon.