The Ministry of Health is not satisfied with Southern District Health Board assumptions that many Queenstown residents are using the Lakes District Hospital emergency department for GP services.
Some Canterbury health professionals have been actively undermining Dunedin's neurosurgery service, Dunedin Hospital's clinical leader of intensive care, Mike Hunter, says.
Keeping a check on the stress levels of his chief executive is an integral part of his role, Southern District Health Board chairman Errol Millar says.
Campaigners for the retention of neurosurgery services in Dunedin are hoping for a good turnout at this evening's public meeting in the Dunedin Town Hall to be attended by the panel looking into the future of the service.
Southern National MPs have been bending the ear of Health Minister Tony Ryall this week over neurosurgery services, as mail urging the retention of the Dunedin service floods in.
The recent case of a 46-year-old woman patient who "definitely" would have died without acute neurosurgery at Dunedin Hospital features in a hard-hitting letter from senior clinicians on the dispute over the service's future.
A two-month fight against meningococcal septicemia has ended for 18-year-old Sara Loo, of Invercargill.
After waiting for a year and a-half, the Otago Daily Times has been told privacy concerns mean only limited information can be provided about the salaries of the Southern District Health Board's top management team.
The Southern District Health Board's hopes of saving about $1.2 million a year by charging for laboratory tests ordered by private specialists have been dashed by the Government.
Dunedin people will have the chance to hear directly from the panel reviewing neurosurgery services in the south at a public meeting in the Dunedin Town Hall on Monday evening at 5.30 pm. In this meeting preview, health reporter Elspeth McLean discusses the panel's approach with chairwoman Anne Kolbe.
A locum neurosurgeon with a six-month contract arrived in Dunedin last month and another is expected at the end of August.
If politicians harboured any confusion over the South's views on neurosurgery services, by lunchtime yesterday such doubts should have been dispelled.
The former Otago and Southland district health boards have shown progress towards meeting all six health targets in the last quarter of the year, the latest figures show.
Concern at the length of time the Southern District Health Board has been waiting for a ruling on its controversial "bridging the gap" pilot proposal was raised at this week's hospitals' advisory committee meeting.
Acting Director-general of Health Andrew Bridgman says his right to make a final decision on the neurosurgery row is not related to legislation.
Members of the public will have the chance to share their views on the future of neurosurgery in the South with the expert panel at two public meetings in the South next week.
As a trump card, it is hardly the equivalent of an ace up the sleeve.
I have been slow to concur with the clamour to "catch up" with our friends across the ditch.
If the South Island district health boards do not like whatever the Director-general of Health proposes in the neurosurgery row, Health Minister Tony Ryall may have no choice but to get involved.
Smoking areas linked to three secure wards at Wakari Hospital will be retained, but four other outdoor smoking areas will be phased out.
