The much-awaited top-secret South Island neurosurgical service expert panel's draft report only reached the South Island district health boards after the close of business yesterday.
The South is waiting for the acting Director-general of Health, Andrew Bridgman, to make an announcement about the future set-up of South Island neurosurgery services.
Christchurch Hospital's already stretched intensive-care unit would struggle to cope with extra patients if all neurosurgery went to Canterbury, clinical leader of Dunedin Hospital's intensive-care unit Mike Hunter says.
If there is insufficient goodwill to develop a single service offering neurosurgery in both Dunedin and Christchurch, the fallback position should be two separate units with three neurosurgeons each, Southern District Health Board chief executive Brian Rousseau says.
The report of the South Island neurosurgery expert panel will be delivered at the end of October, two weeks later than originally planned, panel chairwoman Anne Kolbe announced yesterday.
The University of Otago is keen to see a "strong academic component" in any future South Island neurosurgery service, the university's health sciences pro-vice-chancellor, Prof Don Roberton, says.
Veteran health services campaigner Paula Stickings is ready to do battle again over neurosurgery services. Health reporter Elspeth McLean finds out why she is speaking out this time.
Having read Prof Mike Hunter's splendid Otago Daily Times series on the "no brainer" neurosurgical unit saga and his frank assessment of the key medical patient care and professional...
Members of the South Island neurosurgery services expert panel have returned to their homes following last week's meetings in the South and it is not yet known when they may return.
If a one-site neurosurgery service is preferred for the South Island, then Dunedin should be its home, Grey Power national vice-president Terry King says.
The South Island neurosurgery expert panel will be listening when the head of neurosurgery in Christchurch addresses clinicians today about New Zealand neurosurgery issues.
There has been little to laugh about in the neurosurgery debate, but expert panel member Glenn McCulloch raised smiles at meeting of about 1000 people in Invercargill yesterday when he referred to himself as "an ignorant Australian".
While legal issues involved in the neurosurgery row are still under scrutiny, South Canterbury District Health Board chief executive Chris Fleming says he would expect all of the South Island boards to endorse the findings of the expert panel.
The South Island neurosurgery expert panel will arrive in Invercargill this morning, after a full-day hearing with Canterbury health and community leaders.
If centralising neurosurgery disenfranchised a significant number of people and put remote communities at risk, the long-term costs would outweigh any perceived efficiency, Otago and Southland civic leaders told the South Island neurosurgery expert panel in Dunedin yesterday.