Plans to centralise the co-ordination of community services for the elderly in Dunedin next year have not pleased rural hospitals, which say it will result in a poorer service for patients.
The Otago and Southland district health boards cannot agree on having one Primary Health Organisation (PHO) covering both regions, so there will be two.
The Southland District Health Board meets today to discuss the primary health organisation set-up and, like its Otago counterpart, it is likely to make its decision in secret.
Otago and Southland district health boards expect to save about $300,000 to $350,000 a year by managing property maintenance together from next month, regional chief financial officer Robert Mackway-Jones said.
It is hard not to feel grumpy and deprived when you read of exciting developments designed to keep precious and, more importantly, precocious children safe from themselves and the big bad world (or should that be wolf?).
Refusal by some Dunedin Hospital staff to comply with infection control measures was a major problem in the norovirus outbreak a year ago, a review of the incident says.
Chief executive Brian Rousseau said devolution of services from the hospital to the community setting was virtually impossible under the existing arrangements because of the level of agreement which would be needed between structures to bring about change.
Some Otago District Health Board members missed out on discussing the board's break-even plan this week before it was submitted because the Ministry of Health would not agree to the plan arriving a day late.
The Otago District Health Board is expecting not to be paid for a $97,000 maternity bill owed by an overseas patient, and management says such debts are increasing.
Regional community health care will be compromised by anything other than having one primary health organisation for Otago and Southland, Brian Rousseau says.
A former Otago Daily Times journalist who received a bill of more than $10,000 for a stolen credit card she did not want says new cards should always be collected from banks.
The Otago District Health Board is investigating buying a $250,000 machine used by neurosurgeons because hiring it is proving too costly.
A two-month study of injured adults turning up at three medical centres in Dunedin showed 17% of them had been drinking in the six hours before their injury.
Expectant mothers who usually attend antenatal clinics at Dunedin Hospital will receive their care across the road at the former Bowling Green Tavern for the next two months.
The private Mercy Hospital in Dunedin is expected to soon begin carrying out 60 elective surgical procedures on behalf of the Otago District Health Board.
Following the success of a call for staff ideas for improvements earlier this year, which produced 112 ideas, the Otago District Health Board is asking its workers for further suggestions before the end of next month.
The Otago District Health Board's new $4 million patient information management system is having teething problems.
Otago District Health Board members will be asked to make their decision about the future set-up of primary health organisations in secret when they meet on October 1, so they will not unduly influence their Southland counterparts who meet a week later.
Poetry cards distributed free to waiting rooms in Otago are also being seen in Scott Base and Samoa.
It was "damned awful" being away from home for Clayton Weatherston's trial and it should have been possible to get 12 Otago jurors who were not "attached to the university", Lesley Elliott says.
