Elspeth McLean

Otago and Southland public health officials may be asked to provide a policy paper on the review of alcohol laws later this year.

It's hard not to be envious of the members of the Families Commission now Christine Rankin has joined them.

Concerns that the district health boards' annual plan process does not allow adequate input from community health services has been raised by Otago District Health Board chairman Errol Millar.

Access to public elective surgery varies widely across New Zealand and the poor are missing out, even in those areas where private surgery rates are high, research from the University of Otago says.

Risk management was among the issues raised at a meeting yesterday to discuss Otago and Southland district health boards' plans to reduce the amount of home-based support services allocated to the elderly.

Some hospital level beds in Otago rest-homes used by intellectually disabled people under 65 could be freed up for use by the elderly, Richard Thomson says.

About a third of the Otago elderly receiving home support services may be getting care inappropriately, Auckland researcher Associate Prof Matthew Parsons says.

When a decision on the Otago District Health Board's capital expenditure programme will be made was still unclear after an informal meeting between Health Minister Tony Ryall and board chairman Errol Millar in Wellington yesterday.

A further seven people in Otago and Southland are in voluntary isolation because they may have been in contact with a carrier of swine flu.

Otago District Health Board members last week voted not to approve South Link Health's proposal for a primary health organisation (PHO) which could extend across three regions.

When the lively Mary Campbell obliges the photographer by striding up and down the footpath outside her Mosgiel home with her walking frame, it is hard to believe she is 80 and a double amputee.

As concern swirls over proposals by the Otago District Health Board to reduce spending on care for the elderly to bring the region into line with spending in the rest of the country, providers of care in the community are keen to be consulted about better ways of spending money. One of these is Otago Presbyterian Support.