Elspeth McLean

The Southern District Health Board has "doubtful debts" of $800,000 this year, much of it related to unrecoverable costs for medical treatment provided to overseas patients.

Concerns about whether the Southern District Health Board is on target in its plans to reduce spending on community care for the elderly are not helped by out-of-date Ministry of Health data, chief executive Brian Rousseau says.

When your house does not appear in Google's Street View, allowing the whole world to see your son's car leaking oil on the street frontage, the weeds obscuring your shabby letterbox, and any of your other sins, it is hard not to feel alone and unloved.

The Southern District Health Board did not get through its inaugural meeting in Invercargill yesterday without a contested vote.

One of the first actions of the Southern District Health Board at its inaugural meeting tomorrow is likely to be deciding to apply to the Government for $7 million in deficit funding.

Last week's news that animal owners in Dunedin residential areas may have to collect their furred and woolly ones' droppings got a warm welcome from me.

The move by Dunedin's Community Alcohol and Drug Service (Cads) from rented premises in Moray Pl to Wakari Hospital is expected to cost up to $737,885.

Dunedin Hospital's revenue from the Accident Corporation Commission has been $479,000 lower than budget so far this year and next year funding is expected to be more scarce.

An independent analysis of the Dunedin Hospital "putting the patient first" pilot found it made some improvements for patients but did not result in a permanent change to the emergency department culture.

Rural hospital managers in Otago and Southland have been asked to work out how to adapt to a call for more integrated health services.

Moves to stop smoking anywhere on the Wakari Hospital site should proceed with caution, Richard Thomson suggests.

The transition to the Southern District Health Board is expected to cost about $20,000, not including staff time, regional chief financial officer Robert Mackway-Jones says.

Senior doctors at Lakes District Hospital in Queenstown feel betrayed and consider the public is being misled by a "sham" public consultation over Wakatipu health services, with decisions already secretly determined, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell says.

The Ministry of Health may be identifying a significant number of New Zealanders as diabetic who do not actually have diabetes, an Otago study suggests.

A proposal that could lead to more elderly people returning home after an acute hospital admission was promoted at this week's Otago and Southland disability support advisory committee meeting.