Mike Houlahan

Beds, operating theatres and even entire wards could be dropped from the design of the new Dunedin Hospital’s inpatient building as the Health Ministry desperately tries to keep the project close to budget.

Two polytechnic student nurses called in to help at a chronically short-staffed hospital last month watched over a patient on suicide watch.

The aged-care system is poised to collapse, former Southern DHB boss Chris Fleming warned the health minister shortly before his final day on the job.

Two Otago Polytechnic student nurses called in to help at the chronically short-staffed Dunedin Hospital last month watched over a patient on suicide watch.