The need to commission yet more expensive planning work at Southern District Health Board is evidence of leadership in the style of Fawlty Towers, senior doctors' union head Ian Powell says.
Andrew Blair
The Dunedin Hospital upgrade is ''being used as an opportunity'' to review Southern District Health Board's hospital services, a Government contract document says.
The senior doctors' union has criticised the Southern District Health Board for spending more than $10,000 a week on an acting finance chief.
Dunedin Hospital's cooks will focus on food ''regeneration'' - rather than cooking fresh meals for patients - after their job numbers are cut, according to a proposal Compass Group tried to keep under wraps.
Southern District Health Board executive director of communications Steve Addison has resigned in order to start his own public relations consultancy.
A bid to set up a rival primary health organisation (PHO) in the South has failed.
Repeated stalling on the $300 million Dunedin Hospital redevelopment shows the timeframe is slipping, but the Government will not admit it, North Dunedin MP David Clark says.
Hiring expensive contractors at the Southern District Health Board is necessary to keep the organisation running, deputy commissioner Richard Thomson says.
The financially stressed Southern District Health Board has been given a $7 million cash injection so it can pay its bills, Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman has confirmed.
Midwives have great job satisfaction, but the pay for lead maternity carers is making it unviable, Dunedin midwife Prue Thomson says.
A flu season with some ''horrific'' medical complications is easing, Mornington Health Centre manager Jo Rowe says.
Health funding continues to be increased most years, by governments of all hues, and yet the problems remain.
Prime Minister John Key does not believe the Government can legally intervene over funding for Oamaru Hospital and Waitaki district health services facing the threat of less money from the Southern District Health Board.
They may be unlikely fairy godmothers, but Dunstan Hospital is not complaining.
Patients have been waiting in corridors in the Dunedin Hospital emergency department as it copes with an influx that is stressing the entire hospital.
The Oamaru community sent a clear message to the SDHB yesterday by turning out in force for a protest march opposing any cuts to funding for the Oamaru Hospital and its health services.
''Shocking'' new figures showing per-person district health board income throughout New Zealand should prompt a rethink of health funding, Dunedin North MP Dr David Clark says.
The Southern District Health Board has been jointly ranked the poorest performing board in a survey of senior doctors.
The estimated price-tag on the new clinical services building at Dunedin Hospital is now as high as $300 million, rather than $200 million, Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman says.
Sacking the Southern District Health Board members and installing a Dunedin-based line-up is a smart move by Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman.