Employing suitably qualified audiology staff has been the most important factor in ''significant'' improvements to Dunedin Hospital's audiology service, a review released by Southern District Health Board under the Official Information Act says.
New work assessments for the disabled and people with health conditions will impose ''unnecessary angst'' and wrongly put the onus on clients rather than employers, CCS Disability Action Otago patron Donna-Rose McKay says.
Women in Otago and Southland migh receive a better quality breast-screening service by a different provider than the present health board service, which is ''limping along'', Federation of Women's Health Councils co-convener Barbara Robson says.
Planned hospital rankings based on patient surveys will inevitably become league tables and could be detrimental to services, retiring Southern District Health Board member Dr Malcolm Macpherson says.
Financial abuse of older people is likely to be a much bigger problem than people realise, Grey Power Otago president Jo Millar says.
Dunedin's reputation as an ''event city'' was enhanced by its successful hosting of the Bledisloe Cup match at the weekend, Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton says.
Disappointment has been expressed over the failure of the Southern District Health Board to recruit radiologists, and its consequent decision to relinquish the southern breast-screening service from the middle of next year.
An ''insurmountable'' lack of radiologists has forced the Southern District Health Board to relinquish the southern breast-screening service from the middle of next year, the board announced yesterday.
The declining role of district health boards raises a question over whether they will continue in their current form, University of Otago health systems authority Prof Robin Gauld says.
Pushing southern health board jobs into Auckland and its overheated property market does not make sense, Southern District Health Board deputy chairman Paul Menzies says.
A Dunedin Hospital emergency department specialist and a former midwife are the new faces on the Southern District Health Board.
A communication void exists between the Southern District Health Board and GPs because a key liaison role remains unfilled, a Dunedin GP says.
Regional centres such as Dunedin are suffering, and Labour is taking their plight seriously and will revitalise them, Labour leader and regional development spokesman David Cunliffe says.
A union wanting to know why the Southern District Health Board is trying to opt out of its breast-screening contract says it finally got hold of a crucial letter, but it was so heavily censored it was ''meaningless''.
Murals that have brightened the visits of countless children to Dunedin Hospital's inpatient paediatric ward face an uncertain future.
Financial pressure on the Southern District Health Board is affecting its ability to buy equipment, the board's 2013-14 annual plan says.
A GP member of the Southern District Health Board is pushing for action to stem pharmaceutical prescribing in the wake of a $1.3 million over-spend in the first two months of the year.
The Ministry of Health will work with Ashburn Clinic, in Dunedin, to find a solution to the private psychiatric hospital's funding issues, the ministry said after a meeting with clinic representatives.
The Southern District Health Board has agreed to consider the Ombudsman's view that it should consult the public before controversial decisions, but it was difficult to ''second guess'' the circumstances when that would be required, chairman Joe Butterfield told board members this week.
The Southern District Health Board has commissioned a high-level review of its rural hospital and health network to underpin moves to offer more services in outlying areas.
