Funding must follow devolution
Funding must follow devolution
A genuine conversation is needed when changes to mental health services are proposed, writes Max Reid.
Health
Campaign promotes safe sleep for babies
Campaign promotes safe sleep for babies
Babies are suffocating and need their own safe sleeping space, University of Auckland School of Population health programme manager Keith Gell says.
Concern over women smoking to lose weight
Concern over women smoking to lose weight
The number of middle-aged New Zealand women using smoking and compulsive exercise as a way to control their weight is particularly concerning, University of Otago researchers say.
$89 a child after hours
$89 a child after hours
Parents pay up to $89 for after-hours medical appointments for children aged 6-17 in some parts of New Zealand, delegates heard yesterday.
Claim midwives' ideology hinders bids to stop falls
Claim midwives' ideology hinders bids to stop falls
Ideological opposition from midwives makes it difficult to instigate change to hospital practices to reduce the incidence of neonatal falls, a junior paediatrics trainee says.
21 serious adverse events
21 serious adverse events
Mental health and addiction services in the South had 21 serious adverse events last year, a new report shows.
Cannabis laws not helping - health workers
Cannabis laws not helping - health workers
The legal status of cannabis puts a ''massive block'' between client and clinician, Pact mental health clinical leader Matthew Peppercorn told a cannabis public forum at Dunedin Hospital.
Health panel dead: Hague
Health panel dead: Hague
A national public health committee that has not met for a couple of years has effectively been unlawfully disbanded, Green Party health spokesman Kevin Hague says.
Omani medical student hopes to practise in NZ
Omani medical student hopes to practise in NZ
An international medical student who has spent nearly a decade studying in Dunedin says he is not ready to give up his goal of obtaining registration as a doctor in this country.
Trend for GPs not to encourage PSA testing in men
Trend for GPs not to encourage PSA testing in men
A growing number of GPs will not initiate discussion of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing with male patients, research published yesterday in the New Zealand Medical Journal concludes.
Shortage of medical jobs
Shortage of medical jobs
An ''extraordinary'' drop in international medical jobs contributed to a shortfall of places for this year's medical school graduates, which was resolved this week only by the goodwill of district health boards, Prof Des Gorman told a GP medical conference in Dunedin yesterday.
SDHB admits drug level fault
SDHB admits drug level fault
The Southern District Health Board has accepted fault in its treatment of a Dunedin patient who probably died from having toxic levels of a drug used to treat schizophrenia.
DHB to 'improve' audiology service
DHB to 'improve' audiology service
The Southern District Health Board says it has no way of knowing how many parents sought a second opinion on their child's hearing before more than 1500 families were contacted and offered retesting.
Summit to seek rectal cancer solutions
Summit to seek rectal cancer solutions
A "landmark'' bowel cancer summit meeting in Wellington today will look at how to improve survival rates in New Zealand, which are lower than those of other countries, summit convener Dunedin medical oncologist Chris Jackson says.
Warning on water supplies
Warning on water supplies
A norovirus outbreak at Cardrona township last year has highlighted some shortcomings in the law protecting drinking water supplies, particularly in small population centres that host many visitors in the tourist season.
Weeks tick by, weight just falling off
Weeks tick by, weight just falling off
Otago Daily Times Queenstown bureau chief Tracey Roxburgh has reached the halfway point of the 12-week Revive programme at Alpine Health & Fitness. With just under six weeks left, this week she documents her progress and that all-important meeting with the scales and measuring tape.
Allergies drive researchers nuts
Allergies drive researchers nuts
Childhood allergy rates have hit "epidemic proportions" in Australia, prompting health experts to broaden their efforts to combat the mysterious condition.
$10m deficit funding for Southern DHB
$10m deficit funding for Southern DHB
The Government has approved a $10 million cash injection for the Southern District Health Board for the 2011/12 financial year.
Ring-fencing of funds to discontinue
Ring-fencing of funds to discontinue
A "ring-fence" guarding mental health funds should be removed within five years, as district health boards treat a broader cross-section of society and focus on prevention, an updated blueprint says.
Transformations wow audience
Transformations wow audience
A dozen weeks of hard work paid off for the competitors in the Alpine Health and Fitness Ladies Fashion Challenge on Monday night.