Eileen Goodwin

If not for the death of a respected colleague, Kevin Soper, of Dunedin, believes he would not have survived meningococcal disease.

A Dunedin baby with meningoccocal disease has been discharged from hospital and has made a ''full recovery'', health authorities say.

The Dunedin City Council does not have the resources to ensure logging trucks do not drive fully laden on Blueskin Rd without permission, Cr Andrew Noone says.

Funding pressures and a change in client type means a Maori supported accommodation facility has to cut staff, a proposal from Dunedin mental health and intellectual disability support provider Pact says.

District health boards have "clear marching orders" pushing them to provide healthcare rather than support learning and training, University of Otago health sciences pro-vice-chancellor Prof Peter Crampton says.

The super-sized primary health organisation is not listening to community representatives, says Oamaru's Tony Wood, explaining his decision to step down from Southern the Primary Health Organisation's community advisory group.

The Southern District Health Board wanted to appoint a neurosurgeon for just two years, rather than for a longer term, causing "some tension" between Dunedin Hospital management and the South Island neurosurgical service, the National Health Board's Dunedin Hospital report reveals.

A "poor culture" rather than lack of money is at the heart of Dunedin Hospital's problems, Health Minister Tony Ryall says.

Managers and doctors tried to work together to fix Dunedin Hospital but there was never enough money, Dunedin Hospital general medical staff chairman Dr David Perez says.

"Quite a damning" report into New Zealand's cervical screening programme reveals significant issues to be addressed before the service can be considered world class, University of Otago Associate Prof Brian Cox says.

A new Dunedin mental health housing facility is "far too big with too many people" and is a service downgrade, a mental health agency manager says.

The Historic Iona Church Restoration Trust plans to start the "huge job" of refurbishing the Port Chalmers church this year with the help of a $150,000 grant from Otago Community Trust.

Pact Dunedin has been "over-delivering" services and will phase out night carers when it moves clients to refurbished former Dunedin City Council flats in Wakari.

"Management speak" and "bureaucratic English" in a health report came under fire from Southern District Health Board members yesterday at a meeting in Invercargill.