If I were in a better frame of mind, it might have made me smile. But since John Key has set the smiling standard, beaming ceaselessly from the web, television, newspapers, and now the glorious pamphlet for parents on national standards in primary schools, I feel inadequate.
Allegations of a "particularly bad relationship" between senior management of Southland District Health Board and senior doctors, which must be addressed before any merger, were not accepted yesterday by Southland chairman Paul Menzies.
Restructuring involving management and clinical leadership at Dunedin and Invercargill Hospitals will be considered soon, regardless of whether there is to be one Otago-Southland district health board.
Health Minister Tony Ryall has indicated he is unlikely to make a national ruling on privately funded extra treatment for cancer patients in public hospitals.
Southland District Health Board chairman Paul Menzies does not plan to meet nurses and some senior doctors over their "eleventh hour" concerns about the possible merger of the Otago and Southland boards.
A comprehensive report on the contentious issue of patients smoking outside Dunedin Hospital is expected to be considered by the Otago District Health Board's hospital advisory committee later this month.
Health Minister Tony Ryall says he has made it "very clear" to the Otago District Health Board that he expects an improvement in its financial management in the next month.
A paper proposing a new model of health care for Queenstown is expected to go out for community consultation after consideration by the Southland District Health Board next week.
Increasing international demand for monitoring the safety of medicines is music to the ears of Dunedin's Dr David Coulter, but he knows there is still a long way to go.
Ninety responses had been received by the Otago and Southland district health boards on the controversial "Bridging the Gap" proposal when submissions closed this week.
Schools will have no responsibility for dental clinic maintenance under proposed leases with the Otago District Health Board for the new fixed site and mobile dental clinics.
Some 2400 Otago elderly people receiving up to two hours' housework help a week will be targeted in renewed efforts by the Otago District Health Board to cut spending.
Otago District Health Board chairman Errol Millar says he can understand Health Minister Tony Ryall's reluctance to fund Dunedin Hospital upgrading when the board cannot meet its budget promises.
Some Dunedin Hospital cancer patients have already paid for unfunded treatment - with the consent of senior management.
The Otago District Health Board is anticipating a $3.9 million end-of-year budget blowout, with the annual deficit expected to reach $10.9 million.
Dementia should be viewed as a medical condition and treated with similar urgency to cancer, ethics researcher Associate Prof John McMillan, of Flinders University, Adelaide, says.
A single new board called Southern DHB should replace the Otago and Southland District Health Boards in July, the boards' chief executive, Brian Rousseau, recommends.
Special clinics in Otago will begin delivering the free swine-flu vaccine from today for those considered most at risk of contracting the illness.
Members of the board overseeing the transition to the new Otago-Southland primary health organisation are each being paid $1150 for meeting days.
Doctors repeatedly counting their errors and saying they must try harder is not the answer to improving patient safety in general practice, University of Otago researcher and GP Dr Katharine Wallis says.
