The contract for a locum neurosurgeon at the Southern District Health Board has been extended, as permanent appointments to the South Island Neurosurgical Service are still some time away.
The hospitals' advisory committee meeting today will be advised that recruiting has also begun to fill the second locum position for a further year.
Under the new service, which will cover the whole of the South Island, it is expected three neurosurgeons will be based in Dunedin.
Two of them will have academic duties.
Recruitment for these three permanent positions is expected to begin soon.
Committee reports also show that a job offer has been made to a North Island audiologist.
The report of the board's emergency medicine and surgery group said it was hoped "we will secure this person to come to establish a high-quality audiology service in the Southern region".
An offer made earlier to someone else fell through and the job had to be re-advertised.
The board has been referring adults and urgent child referrals to private audiologists, while hearing screening referrals for newborns have been dealt with by an audiologist visiting from Whangarei.
