Any suggestion that Dunedin Hospital's emergency department cannot work efficiently because it has too many patients misses the point, emergency specialist Dr Tim Kerruish says.
Reducing demand is having little impact on tobacco use in New Zealand and controls on supply are also needed, the Public Health Association conference was told in Dunedin yesterday.
If you are sick of hearing the term "nanny state", there may be a good reason.
People are getting fed up with the harm done by alcohol in New Zealand and there is a mood for change in relation to liquor laws, but it is driven by concerns about crime rather than health, Prof Sally Casswell says.
Dunedin Hospital will find it hard to meet the Minister of Health's expectation that patients should spend no longer than six hours in emergency departments, because it is still dealing with too many non-urgent cases, the Otago District Health Board says.
A service which will allow 700 elderly patients a year to receive assessment and rehabilitation in their homes rather than at Dunedin Hospital was launched by the Otago District Health Board yesterday.
About $1000 was raised yesterday for a painted poster by Dame Robin White which the Otago District Health Board's art advisory committee hopes to buy for the Dunedin Hospital foyer.
Thirteen art works by Ralph Hotere at Careys Bay Hotel left one historic setting for another yesterday, travelling in style to Auckland on owner Barry Colman's private jet.
A more frequent shuttle service for Otago District Health Board staff travelling between Wakari and Dunedin hospitals, which begins this week, may save about $60,000 a year.
Business and union representatives will head back to the Employment Court this week to give further submissions on matters related to a July decision about a community service worker's sleepover rate.
Concerns that Well Dunedin Primary Health Organisation is "scare-mongering" in its advertising relating to 12 departing medical centres has been expressed by South Link Health executive director Prof Murray Tilyard.
There has been little response to the Otago District Health Board's latest plans for the school dental service.
A clinic within the University of Otago's School of Dentistry and two extra mobile clinics have been added to the mix of services to be provided by the Otago District Health Board's revamped school dental service.
The Otago District Health Board should be strengthening home support services, not cutting costs, so more elderly can remain safely in their own homes, Presbyterian Support Services for older people Otago director Maurice Burrowes says.
Delays by the Otago and Southland district health boards in acting on health workforce issues raised in community workshops in March and April are unacceptable, Peter Barron says.
Otago groups should be allowed to have regular input into the Otago District Health Board on disability issues as part of a new network.
Thirteen general practices which want to leave the Well Dunedin Primary Health Organisation will have to go through a mediation procedure before they can do so.
While debate continues over the primary health organisation set-up in the South, Otago's biggest PHO, Well Dunedin, faces losing 13 of its 27 practices.
If Otago and Southland district health boards want to think radically about the way they are providing health care, they could be looking at a way for hospital and community clinicians to work more closely, Associate Prof Robin Gauld says.
Workers from 19 Otago timber mills who may have been exposed to the preservative pentachlorophenol (PCP) are among thousands nationally being urged to give their opinion about the need for related health services.
