Over-the-limit Rugby World Cup rugby fans are a potential drink-driving hazard when they disembark from trains at Waitati, Waikouaiti Coast Community Board member Geraldine Tait says.
Ethical approval for trials of ketamine on advanced cancer patients with depression had to be obtained because the trial was different from prescribing the drug off-label to Dunedin Hospital mental health service patients, Southern DHB Otago chief medical officer Richard Bunton said.
Some Otago home-based care agencies do not investigate client complaints using a third party, suggesting a top-level recommendation for a standardised complaints system was warranted, Age Concern Otago social worker Marie Bennett says.
Dunedin Hospital is under investigation over the use of drugs in medical research without proper patient permission.
Dunedin residents are the least likely to show up for hospital appointments of any territorial authority in Otago and Southland, figures show.
Visiting scholar in Japanese social anthropology will devote part of her four-month stay at the University of Otago researching the impact of Maori scientific beliefs.
By summer, Portobello will have a new jetty replacing a decrepit structure, opening Otago Harbour once more for recreation from the village, excited community leaders say.
Elderly people with chronic illnesses are now funded by district health boards, rather than the Ministry of Health, in a change this month that carries a "downstream" financial risk to boards, Southern District Health Board finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones told a health committee recently.
Southern DHB should consult the private healthcare sector before releasing major health planning documents, Mercy Hospital chief executive Richard Whitney says.
Young people in Otago and Southland will have access to two subsidised sexual health consultations a year regardless of socio-economic status, as the Southern PHO has backed down on a controversial plan limiting sexual health funding to "high needs" groups.
A new cancer control plan to be presented to the Southern District Health Board today says the board must prepare for a significant increase in the number of cancer cases.
The Southern District Health Board is being urged to spend an extra $419,000 to pay for more theatre time to deal with a "crisis" in acute surgery at Dunedin Hospital.
Dishing out tranquillisers to stressed people happens when normal distress is wrongly diagnosed, Dr Margaret Grigg, the Australian nurse who led the Victorian Government's mental-health response to the Black Saturday bushfires, says.
A rural home-help provider says a 1.7% funding increase will not allow it to raise its 30c-per-kilometre mileage rate for carers.
Despite facing a significant financial shortfall this year, Dunedin's private psychiatric hospital, Ashburn Clinic, has good news about its future.
The Government should offer an assistance package to Christchurch businesses to relocate within the South Island to prevent a flight to Australia or Auckland, Otago Chamber of Commerce president Peter McIntyre says.
Despite taking another hit this week, morale in Lyttelton is high, real estate agent Lynnette Baird says.
A pilot scheme to help Dunedin cancer sufferers move on after their illness could be a model for others, programme developer Dr Sue Walthert says.
Paying parents who vaccinate their children is "bribery", a Dunedin mother, who has not had her two sons vaccinated, says.
The Ministry of Health is considering adding chickenpox and rotavirus to the childhood vaccine schedule.
