My companion slamming on the brakes to avoid turning an errant lamb into jellymeat as we travelled to a Tapanui family gathering was the most heart-stopping event of election night for me.
Improvement to the colonoscopy service in Dunedin will require funding and people working together constructively, national Gastroenterology Society president Associate Prof Susan Parry says.
Labour Dunedin South MP Clare Curran will need to do something "quite significant" this term if she is to stand again, University of Otago political lecturer and commentator Dr Bryce Edwards says.
National's Invercargill MP Eric Roy has comfortably retained the seat which he has held since 2005.
The $820,000-$830,000 paid to a health professional employed by the Southern District Health Board last year is likely to be about $190,000 higher than the top rate paid by any other board.
The annual reporting of sentinel and serious events in the nation's public hospitals expected this month has been delayed until February, it was confirmed yesterday.
It the Frog, of Muppets fame, has not helped the cause of frog preservation.
International research published this month suggesting frogs and other amphibians will eventually have no refuge from disease, climate change and shrinking habitat is no surprise to University of Otago scientist Dr Phil Bishop.
Further advice is being sought from the Ministry of Health by the Southern District Health Board on what is the best recommendation to give regarding meningococcal vaccinations for young people.
Harsher penalties, boot camps and "correctional quackery" will not reduce recidivism among violent offenders, Victoria University forensic clinical psychologist Associate Prof Devon Polaschek says.
One of the issues with which South Island district health boards will have to grapple is how to plan for future buildings and equipment when estimates suggest more than $2 billion will be needed over 17 years.
Stopping all farming on Harbour Cone and letting the block revert to nature would be a disaster, Moira Parker told a Dunedin City Council planning hearing this week.
South Island district health boards have signed up to an alliance they hope will enable them to work together better.
Mental health services in the Otago-Southland area attracted four complaints to the Health and Disability Commissioner in the first half of this year.
Some interest has been shown in preserving the old nurses' home at Southland Hospital in Invercargill, but no formal project has yet been put to the Southern District Health Board.
A case where a Dunedin Hospital patient's stay in the emergency department was 12 hours because of difficulty getting access to a wheelchair has resulted in changes to prevent this happening in future.
Elton John will fly out to Sydney immediately after his concert at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on Friday night.
Unnecessary examinations of patients are are one of the practices the project tackling waiting times at Dunedin Hospital's emergency department is trying to stop.
Dunedin Hospital's urology service has had to introduce catch-up clinics to cope with more than 350 patients waiting for their first appointment with a specialist.
Another substantial hospital building is needed in Dunedin because tinkering with the existing buildings will increasingly thwart staff's ability to deliver a good service, a leading specialist says.
