Health

Last-minute moves by the Otago District Health Board yesterday failed to placate Southland senior doctors critical of the proposed merger between the southern district health boards.

Otago District Health Board chairman Errol Millar says he can understand Health Minister Tony Ryall's reluctance to fund Dunedin Hospital upgrading when the board cannot meet its budget promises.

Victor Billot has some bright ideas on how to make the public health system pay its way.

Concerns that the fumigation of logs and lumber might be linked to motor neurone disease have no scientific basis, says the forest industry.

A team of cardiologists and health professionals will today test their pedal power as they start a two-week ride the length of New Zealand.

Special clinics in Otago will begin delivering the free swine-flu vaccine from today for those considered most at risk of contracting the illness.

Should public hospital cancer treatment have an unfunded - privately paying - stream? Mathew Zacharias offers a personal reflection on the debate.

Water in the Hawea river probably contained more E-coli contamination than the town's water supply, even though routine testing of the water supply revealed a single count of the bacteria,